Survival
by Chaotic Harlequin
Summary: It's amazing how fast things can go from bad to worse. World's been over run. We're trying to survive. Find a place to live. Find our families. We're not having much luck. Jori story.
1. World we live in now

I sat on top of the car, over looking the highway. I sighed. It was all dead. Nothing moved. It didn't surprise me. The high ways in the back end of Nevada were almost always dead. Nothing but flat desert. Miles and miles of desert. I lit a cigarette, and took a large drag.

"That thing stinks Jade," a voice said, floating up from the car. I looked down at Tori. I slammed the little flutter in my heart that happened every time I looked at her face. I scowled at her.

"Feel free to go away Vega" I snapped.

Tori pursed her lips. "I can't leave Jade, you know that" I rolled my eyes. "I mean inside the car genius"

Tori looked even more annoyed with my sarcasm. I didn't care. Tori kept staring at me as I smoked. After a few seconds, I sighed and gave in. I held out the pack to her. With the guiltiest shrug I have ever seen from anyone, Tori accepted the cigarette. I leaned forward and Tori lit the end of her cigarette off of mine. She exhaled some smoke through her nose and leaned back against the car. I chuckled.

"Never thought the Saint of Hollywood Arts would ever smoke"

Tori gave a guilty smile. "Not always a saint Jade. Remember what I did to Flex?"

I laughed out loud at that. Flex had been this idiot who pretty much lived at the gym. A narcissistic douchebag of the highest order, he had hit on everything that even looked female at HA. When he tried to cop a feel on Cat at a party, all of us flipped out on him. He didn't get the message. So a couple days later, Tori somehow snuck a stink bomb into his car, and set it off when he was inside of it. I only figured it out when I overheard Cat discussing how Tori had hounded her brother until he showed her how to make stink bomb and set it off remotely.

I laughed, remembering Flex's gagging face has he stumbled out of his car.

"Didn't it take like 3 weeks and several thousand dollars to defumigate his car? And him for that matter?" I asked with a mirth filled voice.

Tori chuckled and looked embarrassed. "It was a month before he could use his car again"

I exhaled a cloud of smoke and smiled. "A much better thing to do then pull a Taylor Swift and write a damn song about him"

Tori mock glared at me. "Her songs weren't that bad"

I just looked at her and snorted. I leaned back and closed my eyes and basked in the sun. I heard Tori lean against the car.

"Jade, look!"

The panic in Tori's voice brought back to earth. I followed her hand and out to where she was pointing. Out at the distance, a figure was walking..no shambling towards us. Every second he or she was getting closer to us. I grabbed the rifle right next to me. Some military grade rifle.

I lay down on the roof of the car. I looked down the scope at the approaching figure. I sighed.

"Corpser Tori. Don't see any others around here. You see any others?" Tori grabbed her own rifle and looked around.

"I don't see any"

I nodded. "Fine. I'm dropping this fucker"

The rifle barked, and the corpser's head exploded into red ruin and it collapsed in a heap. Just another day. I sighed. This was the usual. Day in day out. Move from place to place, kill a few corpsers, try and find food and whatever else is needed to survive.

Corpsers. Walkers. Biters. Zombies. Doesn't matter what you call them. They're all the same. Living dead. Flesh eating monsters. About six months ago the virus appeared on the east coast. In less then no time it had spread all across America. City after city fell. And then Washington blew up. Some say the president did himself. Others say it was a lunatic General who set off the nuke. It didn't matter. Washington and most if not all of the government were gone. Couple days after that, the United States of America ceased to exist. Canada followed shortly after that. This fucked up virus was limited to North America. It spread all over the goddamn world.

Only reason Tori, Andre, Beck, Cat, Robbie Trina and I all survived was because we were on a cross-country road trip to celebrate the start of the summer. We only got to the Midwest before Tori's mom called her. LA was going to hell. The virus has started for the west coast there. So it was worse there then anywhere else. We didn't make it in time.

The military cluster bombed the hell out of it. The people who survived the virus and the military scattered everywhere. We couldn't find anyone we knew. I didn't give a damn about my father or my latest stepmother. But Tori and the others….I didn't know what to do. They had all probably just lost everyone they cared about. I was never good with compassion or anything like that.

And now, we were traveling from place to place. Looking for anything that would help us get to the next day. We had camped at a military base for a bit, where an awesome Colonel named Felix gave us some guns and ammo, and taught us how to use them. We would have stayed at the base, but it was over run in a week.

We grabbed some vehicles and high tailed it the hell out of there. We've been on the road for a few weeks now. Beck has been our unofficial leader. Nobody questioned it. If anything we all encouraged it.

They said that they were looking for their parents and other family members. I didn't think that we would find any, but I didn't dare to say anything. I wouldn't disturb their peace of minds. Especially not Tori's.

I flicked the butt of the cigarette onto the ground. I wasn't a smoker before the shit hit the fan. But since the world has pretty much ended, so why the hell not? Must be Tori's reason for smoking as well.

"When do you think they'll get back?" Tori asked.

I shrugged. "I don't know Vega. Beck, and Andre went to look for gas, so they'll definitely be awhile. Cat, Robbie and Trina went to find….something so I don't have even the slightest clue when they'll get back."

Tori sighed. "I hope they're okay."

I reached down and put my hand on her shoulder. Tori looked up at me in surprise, since I wasn't normally the type to be all touchy feely. But these were very different circumstances.

"So do I Vega. So do I"

**Welp…here it is. A zombie jori flick…because why the hell not? Well, I'm out due to classes being in the morning. **

**Hope you all enjoy and wish to see more. **

**-C.H.**


	2. A short Peaceful moment

I sighed, returning to look at the sky. A number of thoughts passed through my head; the fact that world really ended, that it only took six months, Tori, when's the next time I'll get to take a shower, Tori, when will the others be back, Tori…it went on. I sighed in frustration. She had wormed her way into my thoughts and she just wouldn't leave!

I had a mild crush on her from when she had first entered HA. But that was just it, a mild crush brought on by her amazing looks. I was far more attached to Beck, who I had been dating at the time. But then we broke up. And Lo and behold, little Tori Vega, who I had been pranking and verbally abusing from the start was right there to help me up. And that little crush grew into something else.

And then the world ended.

I honestly wondered what was going through her mind. What I would give to be a mind reader.

"Jade…there's a car coming"

I sat up and grabbed my rifle. "It looks like the sedan we use"

"So they're back?" I heard the joy in her voice. I hated to do it, but I had to do it.

"That doesn't mean it's them, it could be someone else with the same type of car, or something could have happened to them," I said, my cold voice cutting through her joy. Her face registered with shock, but then she nodded and grabbed her rifle. I jumped down and opened the door and crouched down behind the door. Tori did the same on her side. The door wouldn't stop any bullets, but it would give me some cover and make it hard to get a 100% bead on me.

The sedan stopped about a 100 feet away from us. The door opened….and Beck stepped out. I let a breath I didn't know I was holding loose. Beck smiled at us, and out of the car stepped out Andre. "The others are in the back, all asleep. You gonna keep pointing those guns at us?" Beck called out.

Smirking, I lowered the rifle, and Tori did the same. Beck got in the car, and drove the sedan around the SUV we had stolen and attached it to the towing device thing at the back. While he did that, I grilled Andre over what they had found. And the answer is: Not much! Just miles and miles of more road. They did find a desolate gas station that surprisingly had enough gas for both vehicles.

Tori, Andre and I helped get a sleeping Cat, Trina and Robbie into the SUV. Some Explorer. While we were doing this, Beck poured over the maps. I watched him out of the corner of my eye. The others might believe that everything was fine and Beck was all right; but I dated him for three years and I could read him as easily as I could read Dr. Seuss.

Walking over to him, I poked him in the side, causing him to jump and flinch away from me.

"Something wrong?" I asked.

Beck nodded. "Alotta things Jade. A Survivalist said that there was an abandoned hotel just outside of Vegas. About three hours north"

Survivalists. Those whack jobs that had spent pretty much their entire lives preparing for the end of the world. Turned out they were right. Kind of galling that they were right all along.

"That's good. Now what's really bothering you?"

Beck sighed. "Bandits. Survivalist saw a group, about forty plus strong. Caught up with a woman who was traveling alone…" his voice trailed off.

I flinched. Bandits. Scum. People who preyed on others, usually the scavengers like our group. It wasn't uncommon to hear about them murdering and or raping everyone they came across. And gang raping definitely is a common thing for them.

"They killed her after right?" I asked. I didn't like the pleading tone in my voice, but I needed to know. I wasn't sure I wanted to know, but I had to know what type of bandits that we might be dealing with.

Beck shook his head. "They dragged her off…after they…after they finished"

I swore. Not just ordinary bandits then. Slavers on top of it.

Beck sighed. "Hey.." I said.

Beck looked at me. "We find a hotel and a private room..I might…just might fall into your bed.. with out my clothes of course." I said with a smirk.

Beck thought about it. Then nodded. "sounds good..and I wont complain if that happens"

"Better not!" I said with a laugh. Beck, chuckling turned back to the map, and I left to go check on everyone else. Beck and I had broken up about a week before we went on our road trip. We hadn't intended to become fuck buddies, but we both enjoyed sex, and with the world they way it is, you needed to find whatever enjoyment you can get. And as an added bonus, it usually served to get a certain half-latina out of my mind for a few hours.

I walked back, and watched as Tori talked to Andre. Tori said something and Andre laughed. I snuck up behind Tori, and leaned into her ear and said "Boo"

Tori jumped up in the air and barely managed to suppress a shriek. "Jade!" she whined.

"_Jade!" _I said mocking her.

"I don't sound like that!" Tori said. "I don't, right Andre?"

Andre put up his hands and backed up. "Leave me out of this" was all he said. Tori looked like she had just been betrayed, but I chuckled. "Smart guy" I said. Tori glared at me. Abruptly, I changed topics.

"How's Cat holding up?" I asked.

Andre sighed. "Better, but she still breaks down crying when she thinks we aren't watching. She seems to like it when Beck is there for her."

I nodded. "I'll have him check on her more often then"

Cat had every right to cry. We all knew for a fact that her entire family was dead. She had been on the phone with them when a missile or something explosive had struck the building they were staying at. The call cut off in the middle of her mother's promise that they would see each other again. That had a few months ago.

Andre nodded. "Just make sure you're both dressed when Cat comes knocking"

I rolled my eyes. We had holed up at some dingy broken apartment, and Beck and I snuck off to have some serious time together. Right in the middle of it, Cat barged in wanting to talk to someone.

A serious cock blocking right there. But hey, at least this time she had learned to knock first.

Tori didn't look amused, if anything she looked a little embarrassed about what Andre had said.

"We'll be dressed if Cat needs anything. You just keep your porn to yourself"

Andre spluttered at that, and Tori turned bright red as she fought to keep the memory of Andre's vast porn bank from surfacing.

"Next time pass word protect your laptop" I said, rubbing it in. Andre looked everywhere but at us. I smirked. I think I won that little exchange.

Beck chose that moment to walk over and announce that he had found a route for us to take to the hotel. Tori and I both voiced our opinions; I was for it due to wanting to sleep on an actual bed, and Tori was against it because it was close to the city. I think everyone was surprised to see us switch stances, normally I was the one who saw the negatives and Tori saw the positives. But goddamn it..I wanted that bed. With or with out Beck in it.

Eventually we came to an agreement of going to the hotel. I climbed into the drivers seat, and Tori took the passengers seat. It's been that way since the start of the road trip. If I drove, she was in the passengers seat, and vice versa. We didn't question it; we just worked with it. Beck and Andre gave the directions to the gas station, and we took off. I looked in the rear view mirror. Several corpsers were shambling towards us.

Peaceful moments never lasted long.


	3. Escape to survive

The drive to the gas station was completely uneventful. Which I'm glad because we've had to many eventful days. Dodging bandits, dodging bullets from bat shit survivalists, and of course, dodging the corpsers. We tried not to fight them when we could avoid it. One corpser could easily become a swarm. And that swarm could easily grow into a horde.

I snuck a glance at Tori. She was staring at the window, her eyes darting from left to right. I sighed. It seemed like only yesterday we would be staring out of the window lost in thought or just out of sheer mind numbing boredom. Not looking out for traps or any problems that might arise. Looking back in the rearview mirror, I saw that almost everyone was passed out. Only Cat was awake, and she gave me a wane smile before turning and looking back out the window.

It was only an hour and half drive to the gas station. As Tori and Cat pumped the gas for the cars and the containers we had acquired, the rest of us spread out to do a more thorough search of the area. We didn't find much. The rotting remains of the long dead gas station owner in a corner after Beck had slammed a knife into its face were about it. No food, no nothing. I swore under my breath. We had some supplies, but they would run out at some point.

Trina's joyful voice cut through my inner rant. "I found water! At last a bath!" I raced across over to where she was standing. Elbowing my way past Robbie, I saw that Trina was holding a gallon of water. Even better was the fact that there was at least six more gallons of water on the floor. Even better, all the caps still had the plastic wrap seal thing around it!

"Get these into the car. Quickly!" I said, joy at finding more water to drink overcoming my normal dour mood. Nodding, Robbie and Trina each grabbed several jugs of water and all but sprinted for the car. I felt more then heard someone behind me, and I spun around; raising the rifle…. Right at Tori's face. Woops.

"Don't sneak up on me like that Vega." I snapped.

Tori just nodded. Her eyes followed the barrel of the rifle until it pointed at the ground. "Well? What do you want?" I asked.

"Just came to tell you that we are ready to go. This place is out of gas. And there isn't anything else here."

I sighed and looked around the remains of the store. "All right. Lets get out of here" Tori turned to leave, but I lagged behind. I was saddened at the state of the store and the gas station as a whole. Sure it wouldn't be vibrant seeing as it was in the ass end of nowhere, but it should have had some sign of life. Not be a desolate ruin. I felt Tori's hand gently touch my own. It was hesitant, as if she was afraid that I would snap it off. And to be fair, she did have the right to be hesitant. I lightly grasped her hand and ran my thumb over her fingers.

"It shouldn't be like this. It should have some sort of life." I said, answering the unasked question. I chuckled, completely without humor. "You know, I used to think that I knew everything that there was to know about the zombie apocalypse. I thought that no matter what I would be ready and be able to handle it. Just goes to show what I know huh?"

Tori took my hand in both of hers. "You were ready, after a sort. You and Beck kept us alive and together all this time"

"You really think so?"

"I know so Jade. Now lets get out of here"

I nodded. "Yea lets get out of here. We have a hotel with our name on it waiting for us"

Tori gave that radiant smile that I came to love, and she turned and started to walk out of the store. I followed close behind. I had a small smile on my face, grateful for the little heart to heart moment that we had just had. (Though if anyone asked about it I would deny everything. I have a reputation to maintain after all)

My smile vanished as if it had been bombed into oblivion the moment I stepped outside. Off in the distance, a massive dust cloud was steadily and quickly rolling towards us.

"Beck!" I said and pointed towards the dust cloud. Beck turned from talking to Cat and followed my arm. His eyes widened and he began shouting. "Come on get in the car we gotta leave now!" All of us sprinted and practically threw ourselves into the vehicle. Beck jumped in the driver seat, and Trina had barely shut the door before Beck had the engine running and tearing out of the gas station and on the high way.

"What do you think? Those bandits the survivalist mentioned?" I asked Beck.

"Don't know. Don't want to know. Don't want to take any chances" Beck said, trying to keep his cool. "I hear that!" Andre said, speaking up from the passengers seat.

Robbie and everyone else chimed in, agreeing with Beck. "Jade, get back there and be prepared to cut the Sedan if we have to" Beck said.

I nodded. "Got it" I pushed past everyone, and the mounds of supplies that covered every inch of car that didn't have a person occupying it. In the trunk, there was a small bit of stuff moved around so someone could take up that area and lean out the window to shoot or do whatever. (We've learned to put some thinking on how we pack things. Learned the hard way)

I forced open the window and took aim at the metal connecter piece. Robbie had whipped up a contraption that connected the Sedan to explorer, but could be broken by a few bullets. So if we were being chased, we could ditch it and go even faster. I was pushed aside by Tori joining me. She had a pair of binoculars in her hands. "Definitely bandits!" she called out.

"At least a dozen cars! Still heading towards the gas station, doesn't look like they've seen us yet!"

I smirked. By the time they actually see us; we will be long gone. Tori kept staring out the back of the window.

"They're surrounding the gas station! It looks like they're getting out!" Tori let out a whoop of pure joy.

"They're getting out! Checking out the gas station! We got away!"

We all started laughing and celebrating. A day where we didn't have to fight other humans was a good day. Especially psychotic sociopaths. I slammed the window shut and pretty much collapsed on Tori. There was barely enough room in the back for one person, let alone the both of us; but we made do. Especially since it meant that we were all cozied up to each other.

Beck kept up a fast speed for a little bit longer but then began to slow down to save gas. Cruising along, Beck announced that we would be at the hotel in an hour or so. I leaned against the back of the explorer. I looked at Tori. "I'm not moving"

Tori looked back at me. "Neither am I. Took to much work to get back here"

We both smiled at other, and lying against each other, we relaxed and enjoyed the moment. God knows when we'll be able to relax this again.


	4. Destination?

I sighed. I was enjoying the moment. I was right up against Tori, and she was right up against me. Sure we were crushed by the mound of stuff all around us, but hey; I had an immensely hot latina pressed up against me. Tori seemed like she was starting to fall asleep, but I didn't blame her. The adrenaline rush from a potential firefight was fading pretty fast, and I'm pretty sure she hadn't slept since her last driving shift.

Tori's head dropped and landed on my chest. I shifted my arm so that she was propped up on my shoulder. The added bonus of this was that I added about 2-3 inches of room for the both of us. Beck chose that moment to look in the rearview mirror at us. He saw the position we were in and smirked. I glared back at him. Beck knew of my crush on Tori, and if anything he had encouraged it.

I huffed, and the noise caused Tori to shift and mumble something in her sleep. I stilled, for fear of waking her. Beck's smirk blossomed into a full-blown grin. I glared at him again. He keeps this up he won't get laid. Beck nudged Andre and motioned to the back. Andre looked behind him and then smiled. My glare shifted to Andre who flinched, but didn't wipe that shit-eating grin off of his face.

I mouthed _No sex _to Beck. He at least at the decency to look disappointed, but he still didn't wipe that goddamn smile off of his face. After what seemed forever, he returned his eyes to the road. But every so often he would look behind at us and smile. I kept my usual glare and scowl on my face. On this entire planet, only three people have ever succeeded in making me soft. Beck and Cat, and now after so long, Tori.

I was worried though. And increase in the number of people to care about meant a bigger chance of me getting hurt. Everyone leaves at some point, voluntarily or not. I wasn't going to put myself in the position of being hurt again. Especially with the whole zombie apocalypse going on, our life expectancies are probably going to be incredibly short.

Andre shuffled up front with a map, and had a low voiced conversation with Beck. Beck's hands clenched on the steering wheel for a second before loosening. Andre asked something, and Beck nodded his head. Andre turned and looked back at us. Seeing that just about everyone save me was asleep, Andre reached back and started shaking everyone awake. I tried shaking Tori awake, but she stayed stubbornly asleep. I sighed and stuck my pointer finger in my mouth. Taking it out, I stuck it in Tori's ear and twisted. A second later Tori woke up with a loud squeal that succeeded in waking up everyone else. Tori clapped her hand over her ear and opened her mouth to say something, but I cut her off. Jerking my head at Andre who wore a solemn expression on his face.

Once he saw that everyone was awake and paying attention; he started speaking. "We're almost at the hotel, but the map Felix gave us says that Vegas was over run by a horde. And from the last sat readings, the Horde was breaking up and starting to move south."

Andre paused as if letting the information seep in. I kept my face straight, but inside, I was worried beyond anything. Hordes are massive groups of corpsers. They could number in the thousands if not tens of thousands. Hordes usually stayed near cities, were they greatest concentration of food usually was. But when people realized that their governments weren't going to save them, they started spreading out words. And the corpsers followed them. Hordes are rare these days, since they usually break up into the still nerve wracking swarms, or the much more manageable herds.

I hit my head on the back of the explorer. I had figured out the problem. We really should have figured this out before hand, but we got to excited about the hotel and finding the water back at the gas station.

"So we have two options Beck? Large chance of dealing with a herd or two, or even a swarm. Or go back and risk running into a bunch of psychopaths?" I said, scowling.

Beck nodded. "Yea, that's about it"

Andre sighed and then punched the dashboard. I shared his frustration, as did everyone else. I never thought I would ever live to see the day when I had to choose between the lesser of two evils. Potential psychopaths who would no doubt murder and or rape the lot of us, or risk running into so many corpsers that we would be over run and killed.

I thought for a second. "Andre, doesn't this road have an exit at some point?"

Andre unfolded the map and looked through it. "There might be a turn off, I don't really know where we are"

"Thinking of heading back to cali Jade?" Beck asked. Everyone turned to look at me. I hadn't expected to be put on the spot like that, or for Beck to figure out what I was thinking of. (Well, figure it out that fast. I really should have known better)

I nodded. "We make for the coast, might be able to find a ship or something, or even better maintained roads that actually show up on a fucking map. Didn't Felix say that parts of Canada and Alaska weren't nearly as over run as the rest of the country?"

Robbie spoke up "I agree, we've been all over these back roads near Vegas for almost a month and the only thing we have found was some water and corpses and some bandits. No point in staying here"

Trina added to the conversation, and for once seriously without any comments about her looks or anything. (Shocking, I know) "We'll run into more walkers on the coast, but they'll be more supplies. Better chance of living then out here"

Tori had a pensive look on her face, but she agreed as well. Andre voiced is approval for getting the hell out of Nevada. Beck hesitated, but then he agreed as well. Cat voiced her approval last of all. Beck stopped the Explorer. "How are fixed for gas back there Jade?"

"We've got enough, got one can digging into my ass and several others pushing into my ribs"

Beck and Andre chuckled at that. Andre started folded and unfolding maps as he tried to figure out where the hell we were. While he did that, we all got out and started stretching our legs. Tori followed me, glaring at me.

"Can I help you Vega?"

"Yea Jade, what the heck was that? You could have woken me up any other way!"

I shrugged. "I could have, but I didn't" Tori glared at me. I just returned her glare with a smirk. "Next time wake up when I shake you, and it might not happen again"

Tori continued to glare at me. I smiled and stepped forward. Tori took a step back. I stepped forward again, and again Tori stepped back. We kept up this little dance until Tori backed into the explorer.

"Scared Vega?" I asked with a rather crooked smile on my face.

"Anybody with a brain would be scared of you Jade" Tori replied smoothly.

"Aww, how sweet. You always knew how to give compliments"

"Only you would think something like that would be a compliment"

"And that's what you love about me so don't even try and deny it" I said confidently.

"You don't even know the half of it Jade." Tori muttered. My face contorted in confusion. What did she mean by that? Before I could interrogate her about it, Beck called us all over to the hood of the car. He pointed at the map.

"We're pretty sure that we are here." Beck said pointing at the map. I looked at where he was pointing, and then looked at the map that Andre was holding. "Great. So that means we have a long ass drive ahead of us."

"When haven't we Jade?" Andre asked. I sighed in irritation. He was right. If we ever find their families and set up shop somewhere, and never set foot in another car, I will never cry about it. If anything, I might throw a frickin party.

"You kids cool with this?" Beck asked. Everyone voiced his or her various agreements. We spent some time shifting the supplies around in the back, giving myself some more room. It had just enough room for me and whichever poor unfortunate soul chose to sleep next to me.

Andre and Robbie took the front, with Andre driving for this leg of the journey. Robbie would take over when he got tired. Trina, Cat and Beck took the first row seats. And to no ones surprise, Cat immediately leaned on Beck and passed out. I was worried about the girl; she hadn't said anything in the longest while. I get that she had lost her family and so was upset about that, but I was too used to the red velvet bubbly typhoon. I missed her preppy upbeat self. I wanted to talk to her, but I didn't know how or what to say.

Beck wrapped his arms around Cat and pulled her close. Cat snuggled into his chest and wore a content smile on her face. Well never mind then. Looks like Beck has Cat taken care of. I crawled in to the truck and grabbed the blanket. I didn't have driving duty for several hours. I better get some sleep while I could. I felt someone crawling over my legs and I opened my eyes to see Tori working her way towards me.

Grabbing the blanket she lifted it up and slid towards me. We had at most a half an inch of space between us.

"You trust me not to do anything to you while you're asleep Vega?"

Tori shook her head. "No, but you make a good pillow. I like sleeping next to you"

Thankfully she whispered that, I wouldn't know what I would have done if anyone else had heard that. As it is, I didn't know what I would do. Not be able to wipe this happy shit-eating grin off my face was obvious. I snuggled under the blankets, taking full advantage of the fact that there wasn't much room. Tori didn't seem to mind at all. If anything, she snuggled closer to me. Underneath the blankets, her hand reached for mind.

When they touched, I jerked my hand back, and Tori's slowly retreated. Overriding all sense of caution, I jerked my hand forward and ensnared hers. It felt great. Maybe now I would be able to sleep for a full night. As long as Tori was right next to me.

**That's it for this chapter. Hope you all enjoyed. **

**-C.H.**


	5. Highway battle to survive

I slept peacefully. Well, as peacefully one could sleep when surrounded by random pieces of equipment and in the back of an explorer. I woke up and stretched, careful not to hit any of the latches holding things together or knock anything over. Tori was still knocked the hell out. I chuckled at that. I looked outside; it was still the same dusty scene, only difference from yesterday was that there was a lot lighter now. Looking up front, I saw that Trina was driving and Robbie was passed out next to her in the passenger seat.

Besides Trina, only Cat was awake. She was looking out the window, seemingly lost in thought. I poked her in the back of the head.

"How you holding up Cat?" I asked quietly, not wanting to wake anyone up.

"I'm good Jade, I was just thinking what Ariel would do if she was a cat and was living through all of this"

I was silent for a few seconds and I struggled to process this. Having known Cat for more then a decade I was used to her random thoughts that would have given logic or anyone else a tumor if they tried to figure it out.

In the end I just settled on nodding and then asking on what she had thought of. Cat prattled on, slowly regaining her usual cheerful self. I tried following her train of thought, but after a few sentences I was thoroughly confused and on the verge of ending up with a migraine. I tuned out her speaking, just glad she was getting better.

I fell back against the window when Cat finally finished talking. I really should have known better then to try and follow her thinking.

"Twit, how far are we from Cali?"

"Just passed the border weird Goth girl"

Good. So we were close to…something.

"Hey…Goth…what is that at the turn off?"

I leaned forward, pushing past Cat. At the turn off, a trashed car was resting there, blocking it. That wasn't unusual at all, what was unusual was the barbed wire wrapped around it. I swore loudly, startling just everyone awake.

"Trina, don't stop for anything!" I barked.

"Jade what the hell is going on?!" Beck demanded. I pointed at the wrecked car as we drove past. "You know anyone other then bandits that would put barbed wire around their fucking cars?"

Beck swore. He grabbed his rifle and proceeded to check it. Almost immediately everyone was copying him. I didn't even think of dealing with corpsers until Trina slammed on the breaks. Leaning against the seat, I didn't really go anywhere. Tori on the other hand, was launched forward and slammed her face into my ass.

I turned around to see Tori's beet red face. Before I could say anything, Trina pointed and whispered "Herd"

We all looked forward to where she was pointing. Coming towards us was a large group of corpsers. At least thirty plus. "Everyone lie down now!" Beck ordered. Trina and Robbie flopped their chairs back as far as they could go, and Beck, Cat and Andre either fell onto the floor or lay down on the seat. I turned around and flopped down right on top of Tori. Outside, the sound of shuffling grew closer and closer. I was glad Trina at least had the presence of mind to turn off the explorer. No telling what the corpers would have done if they came across a running vehicle.

My heart was pounding beneath my rib cage. I looked at Tori, whose face was rapidly going pale and panic was starting to overcome her. I didn't know how to calm her down. Saying that we would be fine seemed like a stupid thing to do, since there was no guarantees for one. Two, it's a stupidly cliché thing to do. And I don't recall it ever working to begin with.

I edged closer to her. "Hey Tori" I whispered. Tori looked at me in confusion.

"If you wanted to get a close up, you didn't need to head butt me in the ass. Coulda just asked"

Tori went from pale to absolutely scarlet. She would have started spluttering if I hadn't covered her mouth with my hand. But hey, she was panicking that hard any more. The shuffling was closer now. Tori looked at me with fear in her eyes. But she had calmed down some. The first of them stumbled past the hood of the car. They kept lurching forward, I couldn't see them; but I could imagine what they were doing. All of us seemed to suck in their breath. We held it as the corpsers shambled by. They had just past the back of the truck when from out of no where, a gun cracked and the corpers face exploded.

I was cussing a blue streak inwardly. Corpsers were attracted to sound, and when one heard it, there was a damn good chance that more would hear it. More herds could join this herd and we could be swarmed! More guns were going off, and corpsers were dropping. It seemed fine until some cut open with a machine gun. Bullets flying all over the place and on top of that, the stupid fucker didn't seem to know what the hell he was doing with it.

After chewing a few corpsers to pieces, he or she swung the gun and started riddling the top of the explorer. Glass shattered and rained down on us. I kept silent, but everyone else gave out short shouts.

"Trina! Get us the hell out of here!" Beck shouted.

Trina might have shouted something, but I couldn't hear of the gunfire. The corpsers so far had ignored us, but there was no guarantee that it would stay that way. And worse those fucking maniacs with the machine gun were probably going to get us injured or killed. The sound of bullets puncturing metal scared the hell out of me. How soon before it became the sounds of bullets puncturing flesh?

Trina at last got the car started and she slammed on the gas. We took off, about as well as an SUV can take off. We cleared what was left of the herd pretty damn fast, and the bullets that were flying at us soon started missing us pretty widely. We raised a ragged cheer over escaping that little cluster fuck.

I looked up to see the herd being chewed to pieces by the machine gun and whatever else those people were using to shoot with. I cheered at the sight. Nothing made my day like seeing those life-ruining sons of bitches get destroyed. My cheer vanished in my throat when a bullet cracked past my head, and at least three cars roared onto the high way.

They were far from pristine condition, but that didn't matter when they were fast enough to overtake us. I didn't have to say anything. Beck had already seen it and bellowed at Trina to drive even faster. I grabbed my rifle and shot at the connecter. The sedan fell away and the explorer jumped a little as it took off faster now that it had lost a lot of weight. Bullets cracking near me forced me to duck back down. But a massive crash brought my head back up. One of the bandit cars had slammed right into the back of the sedan!

I laughed at the sight. I aimed at the next car, intending to shoot out the tires. But the car swerved, and at the same time Trina slammed into an abandoned car. I reflexively pulled the trigger and the rifle spat out a few rounds. I righted myself just in time to see some bandit fall out of the car. I stared in disbelief. I never killed anyone. Yea I shot at bandits, but I wasn't aiming to kill. At the most just cripple them.

I was shocked out of my thoughts by some more bullets slamming into the explorer. I resumed shooting at the bandits. Tori elbowed her way to get a clear shot at them. She started shooting at them. Bullets were going back and forth as the bandits and us tried to get clear shots at each other. It wasn't going to well. Both vehicles were swerving back and forth avoiding the abandoned cars on the road.

The driver for the bandits must have misjudged because they slammed into the back of an abandoned mini van. Everyone cheered at the sight. I kept cheering with the rest of them, though I was starting to feel a little sick at the thought that I probably just killed a man. I should be feeling a lot more though right? I didn't know. Yea he was shooting at us, but-

A wet slapping sound interrupted my thoughts. I fell back, and looked at my stomach in surprise. A red stain was rapidly spreading across my stomach. At first I felt nothing, and then I felt _pain_. I howled like a wolf and clutched at my stomach. It felt like someone poured fire into my stomach. I fell back against the seat, and I dimly heard Beck issuing a string of orders. I felt a pair of hands push on my stomach. Hard. I heard screaming. Only when I paused to take a breath, I realized it was me. I looked at Tori, who was pushing against my stomach, trying to stop the bleeding. Cat was reaching over, tearing through the med supplies. Looking for something. It started growing dark, and thankfully the pain was fading.

I reached for Tori's face. I think I might have touched her tear soaked face, but I lost all strength and my hand dropped to my side.

Blackness.

**That's it for this chapter. And, yes no worries, Jade lives. I think. **

**-C.H.**


	6. Wake for Information

I heard noise all around me. I was slowly returning to earth. I felt the side of whatever I was laying on dip a little. Someone was right above me. I didn't know who they were, and more importantly why they were invading my personal space like that. So I did the logical thing in this situation.

I snapped my head forward and head butted who ever it was. My forehead connected with the nose of the moron leaning over me. Just as he or she fell back, I opened my eyes and looked around. I was in an abandoned classroom, and I was lying on a gurney hooked up to one of those medical machines. They person I had head butted was bent over, holding her face. An old man spoke up. "Looks like she's awake"

The woman, still holding her face, glared at me and said "No fucking shit doc"

The doctor sighed. "Back when I was your age, women didn't swear."

"That was then old man. This is now. Now who the hell are you and where the hell am I?" I snapped, interrupting the two.

"I'm Doc Cottle. The girl who is holding her face is my assistant, Jane. You're in a town we like to call Eden. Your friends brought you here to be treated for that gunshot wound in your stomach. And yes, I know what I'm doing. I was a medic in Vietnam and I used to be a surgeon in San Fransico."

I stared in surprise. "How..How long was I out?"

Cottle shrugged. "A little more then a couple of days. Your friends are all staying in a house just down the street. Your friend Tori should be back. She hadn't left your side this entire time. I had to force her to go get something to eat and take a shower."

Before I could stop myself, my face burned bright red at what Tori had done. She stayed here the entire time? I shook my head. Then something Cottle said clicked in. "Showers? You have showers? As in running water? As in HOT running water?"

Cottle laughed. "Yep. Hot and running. And stay right there. You were hit with a pistol round. From what Beck, is it?" He waited until I nodded before he continued on. "From what Beck has told me, you were fighting the Skull Kickerz. And it was just some bad luck on your part that you got hit at all. Who ever it was that was shooting at you was probably shooting off to vent some frustration. You'll be healed and ready to move in a couple of days"

I wasn't in the least bit pleased with the idea oh having to stay in one place for a couple of days. At that moment, Tori walked in the room, drying her hair with a towel. She stopped when she saw me sitting up. Faster then I thought possible, Tori crossed the entire span of the room and threw her self around me. Hard. My breath was knocked out of me, and I had to prop my arms behind me in order to stop myself from being knocked over completely.

"Hey..uh Vega. You…you can let go now" I said, a little uncomfortable with this much affection coming from her.

Cottle chortled. "Deal with it Jade. When your gaggle of misfits literally crashed into the wall, you were about a few minutes from death. I don't know how it was possible, but the bullet had missed most of your organs. Nicked your intestines, but that damage was easy to repair. You were almost done in from blood loss"

I wrapped an arm around Tori. "You said it was a pistol round. Think it didn't do so much damage because it was a long shot?"

Cottle shrugged. "Wish I could give you a definite answer. But I can't. As it is, I think you should just be grateful that you didn't die."

I nodded. No point in worrying about it then. Jane stomped over to me. "Well?!" she roared. I raised an eyebrow. "The fuck you want?"

"How about an apology for starters! You damn near broke my nose!"

"Damn near. Which meant that I didn't. Now go away"

Jane fumed. I looked at her; she was about Tori's height, with dirty blond hair and light color skin. Not as pale as mine though. Kinda cute. Well, not so much with a giant purple bruise covering her nose. Jane opened her mouth to say something else, but Tori shifted her head to look at her. I don't know what was in Tori's eyes, but she snapped her jaw shut with an audible click and visibly backed down.

"Thanks Doc. Thanks for everything" Tori said. Cottle waved his hands. "Don't worry about it. Glad I was able to help. To often since this whole thing started I haven't been able to do a goddamn thing."

"Hey Vega, go get the rest of them." I said. Tori didn't look too pleased about leaving, but she did, promising to be back as fast as she could.

Cottle looked at me. "And now you want information on the skull kickerz, presumably for revenge?"

"Read me like a goddamn book doc?" I asked, smugly.

Cottle laughed. "I have three daughters, one of whom seems to be a little like you. And I'm old. Not blind. Stop fiddling with IV. I'm not discharging you early." I glared at him, but I let go of the IV. So much for that. I motioned for him to start speaking. Cottle went on for some time, explaining that Eden was an old town, and when the world ended, the Mayer had immediately gathered the residents and built a wall around it with whatever they could get their hands on. After a few months, Eden became a sort of high way stop for people traveling.

Some decided to stay, making their community larger, and some others decided to continue on. Then the skull kickerz came in. They had been a motorcycle gang before the fall; based in some Podunk town. They quickly found more and more recruits from the swarms of people trying to escape from the hell that is Las Vegas. Very few if any of these Skull kickerz are in a right state of mind. Rumor had it that they had a spy inside Eden, waiting to open it up for them.

I thought Skull kickerz was a stupid name and I voiced that opinion. Cottle and Jane laughed. They both agreed. Word had filtered in that the two cars we had wrecked unintentionally belonged to their scouts. Most of them were only injured lightly, but there was one confirmed thing. One of their guys had been killed. He had been hit in the shoulder, and he fell out of the moving car and smashed his skull and spine. I looked away when I heard that. It meant for sure that I killed someone. But even now, I still didn't feel bad about it. They had tried to kill me..and if they had caught me or Tori or Cat..or even Trina. What they would have done to us….

When I asked how he had heard about it, Doc demurred and refused to name any of his sources. I shrugged. I didn't particularly care. Right then, my group came barging in and promptly bum rushed me. Cat was crying in relief, and everyone else had a smile on their face. I couldn't stop my own smile from forming at seeing them all okay.

After much talking, and explanations on how they found this place, I started to feel tired. Doc recognized this, and started to shoo everyone out. Before I could even think about my actions, I grabbed Tori's arm. She didn't even hesitate to turn around and sit down in the chair right next to my bed. Doc smirked but didn't say anything. Jane sat in the corner, still fuming over the head butt. I lifted up the sheet and Tori climbed in, resting next to me.

Tori immediately started talking about how glad she was to see me alive and awake. I cut her off almost immediately. "Vega, I'm glad to be alive myself, but I'm tired so you're going to have to shut up now"

Tori smiled. "That's my Jade. Sleep well" She lay back down, grabbing a book that had been on the floor. I smirked and began to close my eyes. I heard Doc order Jane to keep an eye on me, as he had more patients to check up on. Before sleep claimed me completely, I looked at Jane. I didn't know why, but there was something about her that I just didn't trust. I resolved to keep an eye on her.

**I don't know why, but I am really enjoying writing this. I hope you all are enjoying reading this as much as I enjoy writing it. One way to let me know is to leave reviews! **

**Oh and btw…did you people seriously think that I would kill Jade? Come on. And don't fret; things are going to turn violent pretty damn soon. **

**-C.H. **


	7. Enjoy the limited peace

I stood underneath the showerhead. Not moving an inch. Steaming hot water poured down on me. It felt like heaven. It had been weeks since I last had a shower, let alone a hot one. After a bit, I sat down and crossed my legs, just enjoying having the water running all over me.

I was at the house we Misfits had taken. I chuckled. For the past couple of days, Tori and the others had been pouring in and out of the school, checking up on me. Cottle had taken to calling us a gaggle of misfits, and the nickname stuck. We were the new group in town, the Hollywood Misfits. I suggested the Hollywood part.

The past few days hadn't brought any new changes or anything. Cottle had pronounced me healed enough to travel about a day after I woke up, but he kept me in the makeshift hospital in order to watch for signs of infection. After a couple of mind numbing boring days, Cottle let me out to explore the town. The first thing I did was hit the shower. Who cares about a town when there is hot water to be had?

The door to the bathroom opened, and without turning my head or opening my eyes, I announced, "I'm not getting out, so either join me or leave"

"Uh…well I need to shower so you're going to have to move then"

I opened my eyes and pushed the curtain back to see Tori, standing in the doorway. "Not going to be prudish right now Vega? I hope you're not going to shower with your clothes on. That's weird, even for you"

Tori glared at me. She sat down on the toilet and harrumphed to herself. I chuckled and let the shower curtain fall back.

"You're not the only one taking multiple showers. Cat was in for an entire hour, only came out when Beck threatened to turn of the hot water. Trina tried to stay in for even longer then that, but Cat turned off the hot water after about ten minutes" Tori said mirthfully.

I chuckled under my breath. "How long were you in here for?" I asked

Through the shower curtain I could see Tori look towards the door. "Only for thirty minutes"

I stared at her, and I knew Tori could feel my eyes on her. After half a minute, she cracked "Thirty minutes, four times"

I laughed. "That's what I thought Vega"

I closed my eyes and leaned my head back, so that my face was receiving the shower in full. It wasn't just that I was enjoying the shower; I was enjoying the fact that I was enjoying the fact that I was _alive_. From what Cottle had said, I came pretty damn close to dying.

I ran my hand over my stomach until I found the stiches. I had to keep them in for a bit longer, but I would always have the scar there.

"I was…scared that you weren't going to make it"

I snapped my head forward and opened my eyes. Tori had spoken so softly that for a second I thought that I she hadn't spoken at all. I was at loss of what to say.

"I'm still here Vega. Can't get rid of me that easily," I said smoothly after a few seconds

Tori chuckled entirely without humor. "That's good, don't know what I would do without someone to raise my blood pressure every day"

I laughed. "I don't think it's healthy to get mad everyday."

"Who said it was about being mad? Besides, aren't you mad everyday?"

I shook my head, scattering the water everywhere. "Not all the time. I'm just never happy"

Tori didn't have any way to respond to that, and I was kinda grateful. I wasn't in the mood to have a heart to heart over emotions. (ew) Turning off the shower, I snapped back the shower curtain. Stepping out, I headed over to get a towel. I was well aware of the fact that Tori was staring at me. Staring very hard.

"Don't strain your eyes Vega," I teased.

Tori went scarlet in the span of a second and quickly looked away. I smirked and wrapped the towel around me. I headed to my room. I got dressed and headed out to explore Eden, announcing this to Andre who was sitting in the living room talking to Jane. Jane and I glared at each other. Jane because I had head-butted her when I woke up the first time, and later I punched her in the jaw when she made a crack about Cat. I glared at her because I couldn't escape the nagging suspicion that she was hiding something.

Heading outside, I walked to the wall. Outside the wall lay dozens of corpsers. The defenders of Eden knew what the hell they were doing. Later, they would go out and burn the corpsers in order to prevent the spread of disease. At the base of the wall, near the gate, lay the crumpled explorer. Andre had been driving and in his desperation to get me some help, he slammed the car into the wall. Getting them Eden's immediate attention. I stared out over the road. I grabbed one of the crossbows that were left lying around. I hadn't intended to take up a watch, but I really wanted to shoot something. Mainly to avoid the nagging feeling that something bad was going to happen. I didn't know where that feeling had suddenly come from, but it was there and it wouldn't go away. I shook my head and adjusted the sight and waited. I got lucky.

After about five minutes, a corpser shambled past a wrecked car. I waited until it got closer, and when I had judged it close enough, I aimed down the sight and took my time lining up the shot. I only had one bolt and I didn't want to miss. After what felt like eternity, but was really only a few minutes, I pulled the trigger, and the crossbow bolt slammed into the creature's forehead. It dropped like a stone.

A sudden clapping sound startled me. I turned around to see some blond guy clapping and smiling at me. "Nice shot" he said.

"Thanks" I said. For some reason, I didn't feel like being near him. And there was something about him that looked familiar. "You're Jade right? I heard about you from my sister Jane. I'm Mike"

That explains it. "That's nice." I said and I turned back around to stare at the fallen corpser. "Nice day out isn't it?" Mike said, climbing up to stand next to me.

"It was" I responded sarcastically, certain that it would fly over his head like a 747. Mike nodded and smiled a disgustingly greasy smile at me. He edged closer to me. Wow. So it didn't fly over his head, it fuckin rocketed past his head.

I stepped away from him. I didn't like his greasy smile, or the fact that he seemed incapable of taking a hint. But the biggest reason for my unease was the fact that just like his sister, it seemed like he was hiding something. Cottle said that the rumor mill said that there was at least one spy for the skull kickerz in Eden. Could there be two spies? I snorted.

What the hell was wrong with me? I was normally never this paranoid. Had the apocalypse brought this paranoia about? How long would it be before I became paranoid about my friends? I was wrapped up in my thoughts and missed what Mike had been saying.

"You say something?" I asked.

Mike narrowed his eyes and his lip curled a little bit. "Yea, I asked if you wanted to ditch the wall and go the pool with me."

I swallowed a laugh. Out of respect for Cottle, I didn't want to go around antagonizing anyone. (Save for Jane of course)

"No Thanks"

Mike glared and stepped forward and grabbed my arm. I ripped it out of his hand. "Don't touch me."

Mike seemed to get even angrier. "I asked if you wanted to go the pool with me, and you said?"

"No. Thanks. That's what I said. You deaf or something?"

Mike grabbed my arms and advanced on me. I snapped my knee up right between his legs. He went down with a shout. I turned and climbed down the wall. I was a bit away when I heard him swear that I would regret that. I gave him a one-finger salute as I walked away.

So much for staying at the wall. I didn't really want to wander around Eden, but I had nothing else to do. I spotted Tori wondering around, seemingly lost in thought. I glanced at my watch, it would be dark soon, and with Mike around I didn't want Tori staying out by herself. I jogged up to her, and promptly scared the crap out of her.

"Can't you just say hi like a normal person?!"

"No."

Tori fumed until she noticed that I was carrying the crossbow. "Getting better?" She asked.

I shrugged. "Got a corpser in the head, but I spent what seemed like forever to line up the shot. Wont be able to use it in a fight, picking off one of them though, I can do that easily"

"You just need some practice. Still pretty good since you've only used a crossbow for a couple of days. Not including that camping trip you went on before all of this happened."

I nodded in agreement. "Hey Vega, does this anything around here feel odd to you?"

Tori thought for a minute. "Not so much as odd, but more like all of this is going to end. Badly."

"So it's not just me. Yahoo."

Tori smiled. "Nope. We're sisters in Paranoia"

I twirled a finger in a circle. Tori stuck her tongue out at me.

"Hey Vega. Thanks…Thanks for watching over me while I recovered."

Tori beamed. "Don't mention it Jade. Hey, I heard that they had some sort of shopping mall thing on the other side of town! Lets go!"

Tori grabbed my hand yanked me along. I tried to ignore the fact that her touching me seemed to burn all the way down to the bone.

The suspicious feelings towards Jane and her brother hadn't gone away, nor had the bad feeling about something horrible happening at some point. But I ignored it all. I wanted to enjoy the few moments of peace and quiet. Especially if they were with Tori.

**Hope you all enjoyed. Now that it's 3 am, I'm going to get some sleep. Seeing as I couldn't sleep without writing this first. Blarg. **

**-C.H.**


	8. No greater demon then man

It had been five weeks since we had crashed into Eden. Five long, but enjoyable weeks. I had pretty much completely healed, and Cottle announced that I was fit to travel wherever I wanted, and was risk free from infection.

That was only part of the good news. Beck had found Tori and Trina's mother! Well, she found him and promptly ambushed him wanting to know where her daughters were. The three of them had a joy filled reunion. But, how as things were quickly becoming in this world, bad news quickly followed good. The Vega's had lost their father. He had died fighting against a horde, trying to buy time for the people to evacuate LA. Mrs. Vega didn't have any information on everyone else's families.

When she had fled to Eden a month after the fall, the military was carpet-bombing everything in and around LA. Thousands had escaped and scattered all around the pacific coast. Hundreds of thousands hadn't made it.

We all had crowded into the house we had commandeered when we had first arrived here. I walked down to the living room, finding Beck bent over a map of California.

"Found a path yet?" I asked

Beck shook his head. "They're calling SoCal a dead zone."

I could hear the complete despair in his voice. I understood it completely. Dead Zones was a new term that came up a few weeks ago. They are areas that had been completely overrun by the dead. Sure there might be survivors there, but there would be no guarantees that they weren't bat shit insane, or even alive at all.

If you're in an area that is deemed a dead zone, you're pretty much dead meat. (Pun not intended) From the traveller stories that we've heard, everything is over run, run down, and pretty much destroyed.

"There's a chance that they're alive Beck. I mean, shit Vega's mom made it all the way up here to Eden"

Beck nodded. "You're right, can't give up just yet." He smiled. "It really is the end of the world if you're comforting someone."

I snorted and gave a one-finger salute as I walked out the door. I wondered where I would go today. Eden isn't a particularly large town, and I hade pretty much seen everything all ready. I never thought that I would be bored during the zombie apocalypse. I spotted Mike on the other side of the road. He glared at me. He had never forgiven me for turning him down, and then kneeing him in the balls. He tried to get revenge several times, but I am a bit of a hellcat, and he came off second best every single time. The scratch marks on the side of his face spoke of our last encounter.

I waved and blew him a kiss. He scowled and stomped off. I laughed, and started walking towards the shooting range. Might as well get some practice in with the crossbow.

"You really shouldn't do things like that," someone said behind me.

"Why not?" I said turning to face Mrs. Vega.

"Because you have to sleep sometime"

I frowned at that. She does have a point. And I tended to sleep like a rock most of the time. Especially when in a safe area.

"Thanks Mrs. Vega."

"Please call me Holly. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you're _the_ Jade West?"

"The one and only"

Holly nodded. "Tori hasn't stop talking about you. She says its thanks to you and Beck that she and Trina are alive right now"

It took every ounce of will power I owned not to blush and to keep the nonchalant air I wore all the time.

"It wasn't hard, just had to make sure she didn't do anything stupid"

"A difficult task on a good day"

I laughed, and Holly smiled. Holly started walking, and I didn't know why, but I started walking with her. We chatted about this and that, acting as if the world was still in one piece. It felt nice. I certainly hadn't expected Holly to want to talk to me, but whatever. We wandered through the shops, but since neither of us had anything worthwhile to trade with the shopkeepers, we were just window-shopping.

After some time, we made our way back to the house, we ran into Tori, who seemed a little surprised at seeing Holly and I walking together, but didn't comment on it. We made it back to the house, and Holly went off to get something to eat from the kitchen, leaving Tori and I to make our way upstairs and to our respective rooms.

"Did you really tell your mom that Beck and I saved your lives?"

Tori nodded. "Yea, Beck led us to safety, and your horror movie knowledge helped out. Thanks!"

I gave a small smile. "Anytime Vega. Anytime."

We reached the top of the stairs and out of the bathroom walked Jane, wearing nothing but one of Andre's shirts.

"Didn't know his tastes in women had sunk so low" I said snidely

"Fuck off bitch." Was Jane's only response before walking into Andre's room.

"Still don't trust her?" Tori asked

"Is the sky blue?"

Tori shrugged but didn't say anything. I glanced out the window, and saw that the sun was starting to set. It was silent, save for the birds chirping. I moved to the window and just stared out side.

Tori moved and stared out the window with me. "Looks nice doesn't it?'

I just nodded.

Tori looked like she wanted to say something, but in the end she just kept silent. I enjoyed the silence, and from the look on Tori's face, she enjoyed it too.

The silence was shattered by a loud scream from outside. We looked at each other, and I grabbed the M9 pistol strapped to my thigh, and Tori sprinted into her room and grabbed her own gun. Beck came out of his room, and Cat came from the room we shared. Andre and Jane were the last to emerge; both fully dressed thankfully.

"What was that?" Beck asked.

"Someone screaming." I replied. "I'm going to check it out"

"We all are" Beck said. Everyone nodded at that. I noticed with some amusement that Jane fell in line with Beck's orders easily and quickly. We all exited the house and followed the growing crowd. The direction was towards the wall…Oh no.

We all started jogging, and that jog quickly turned into an all out sprint. As we got closer, we heard people screaming at others to get back, and the screams of someone who had just seen something horrible.

We pushed our way through the crowed, to find a corpser feeding on some poor bastard. Without a conscious thought, my gun was in my hand and the safety was off. I pulled the trigger and the corpsers head snapped back as the bullet tore through it.

Everybody had jumped and moved away at the sound of the gunshot, save for the Hollywood Misfits. Cat had her gun in hand and shadowed me as we moved towards the guy. I swore silently. He was a goner, his entire throat had been torn off and what was left of it had been chewed on. I hesitated, but I aimed the gun at poor guys head. We couldn't risk him getting up and walking around, so after several seconds, I pulled the trigger the second time. Holstering my gun, I watched as Beck directed us and several people to cover the open gates. People where shouting in fear and outrage over the fact that the gates were open. Cottle, who suddenly appeared yelled for those with training to fan out in teams of three to make sure no other biters got in Eden.

Jane, upon hearing that, starting edging back before taking off. I followed. It wasn't easy, she moved pretty damn fast. But I followed her to her place, and before she could shut the door on me, I barged into the building.

Jane stood by the door, holding a very large knife.

"Why did you take off like that?" I demanded.

"None of your fucking business bitch"

"Mommy, who's that?" A small voice said behind Jane.

"it's..Jade Terry, she's…a friend"

I stared at her, completely dumbstruck. "That's your big secret?! A kid?!"

Jane glared at me. "Can't blame me for hiding him, who knows what people will do to him now with all of this shit going on"

Couldn't fault that logic. Even so. I walked forward and grabbed the knife out of her hands, and then I smacked her upside the head.

"The hell?!" she demanded.

"That was for being so stupid! This entire time I thought you were hiding something that would threaten my friends and it's just your goddamn brat?! Do you have any idea how long I was being paranoid over this?!" I yelled.

"Well sorry you have trust issues!" Jane yelled back.

"Could you two stop yelling please?" An old woman said, walking out from the back.

"I'm Nan, I watch little Terry for Jane when she's busy"

I nodded, but otherwise said nothing else. Before anyone could say anything else, Andre slammed through the door. "We have to leave now! Someone destroyed the gate and it wont close! We have a horde on the way!"

Everyone paled and stared in shock at Andre. "Jane! Grab your kid and meet us at our place! You're coming with us!" I barked. Jane looked at me in surprise.

"Why?" she asked.

"Because Andre seems to like you, and I need another meat shield"

"That works. Nan, what will?"

"I'm going to go meet my husband Sherman."

I raised a studded eyebrow at the name, and Nan clarified "Doc Cottle"

"Best of luck then. Tell Doc, thanks. Thanks for everything" I said.

Jane nodded, "What she said"

"I will dearies, you all be safe now" With that, she pushed past us and went out the door.

I stayed behind to help Jane pack, and Andre helped as well. I found out that they had discovered the horde by hearing about it from a fleeing traveller. According to Andre, some people were going to stay and try and fix the gate, and fight the horde, and others like us were leaving.

By the time we returned to the house, Beck and the others had managed to get their hands on a couple of cars. I didn't ask how, and I didn't care either. The others were surprised at the sight of Jane's kid, but we were in a rush and no one was willing to comment on it at the moment. At the last second, before we could load up, Mike came rushing towards us, demanding that we take him along. It was no secret that he and I hated each other, but Beck nodded, and we figured out a way to stuff him in the trunk.

We drove through the town, mentally saying good-bye to the peaceful moments me had for the few weeks that we were here.

Our little convoy stopped at an abandoned gas station some miles away from Eden. Even at this distance, we could hear the crackle of gunfire. I stood near Tori and Holly. Trina was off searching the gas station with Robbie.

"So now what?" I asked.

Everyone here shrugged. I sighed. Jane stepped out of the truck, and did a little stretch. "How's Terry?" Holly asked.

"He's fine, He fell asleep on Andre, who also fell asleep." Everybody but me chuckled at that.

Mike came around the side of the truck, and immediately advanced on me. I sighed.

"Not in the mood to kick your ass Mike" I said

"Shut the fuck up you stupid bitch. I'm not going to be taking your shit anymore, you'll be taking mine" Mike snarled.

I turned around to deal with him, and I found my self-staring down the barrel of a gun. I immediately lifted my hands up.

"I can't wait, I'm going to have you shaking your ass for me all goddamn day, every fucking day"

A dozen retorts came to my mind, but I stifled them. A loaded pistol being a few inches from my face in the hands of a psychopath being the main reason.

"Took fucking forever to break that damn gate, but once the horde is gone, the skull kickerz move in and take Eden. And I get a high rank for delivering Eden to them on a silver platter"

I was furious. I couldn't believe it. This fucking prick was the snake in Eden.

"Goddamn it." I muttered.

"What, you upset little bitch?" Mike asked snidely.

"Goddamn right I'm upset, I hate being wrong. I thought your idiot sister was the snake. Shoulda known it was your dumb ass"

"You thought I was the snake? Fuck you Jade, I have a son to watch out for!"

"Which I only just found out idiot"

"You two shut the fuck up!" Mike roared.

"Mike..you don't want to do anything you might regret later" Holly said quietly.

"Is that a threat bitch?" Mike snarled.

"No, just a suggestion, we all have to work together to survive. Can't do that if you're planning on enslaving us"

"Mike she's right, please put the gun down, the skull kickerz are insane, you know what they'll do to us!" Jane pleaded.

"I don't care, now we'll wait here until my back up arrives."

"She's your sister! How could you just give her over to the skull kickerz like that?!" Tori shouted.

Beck and Cat both chimed in, and I saw the gun start to waver. Unfortunately, his finger tightened near the trigger. Mike shook his head as if clearing out some bad thoughts.

"I don't care I don't care I don't care!" I'm in the skull kickerz and they're my new family now. Don't worry Jane; we'll take good care of Terry. Teach him to be a real man."

From the sounds behind me, it seemed like some people had forcibly restrained Jane to prevent her from launching her self at Mike. I'm glad they did, I'm really not interested in getting shot again.

"Mommy what's" the rest of the sentence was cut off as the gun shifted from in front of me to the side and went off. I fell to the side, holding my ears. I looked behind me, to see everyone staring in horror at the growing red circle in the center of Terry's shirt. Jane was screaming no over and over again. Everyone crowded around Terry, trying to do something. Mike looked a little shocked at what he had done, but I didn't see any hint of remorse on his features.

Launching myself forward, I grabbed his arms and forced the gun upwards. Mike pulled the trigger a couple times, but the rounds sailed off harmlessly into the ceiling. I elbowed him in the gut and then bit his arm. He shouted in pain and dropped the gun. He pushed into the car, and I slammed my head on the window. I saw stars. I felt Mike lick the side of my face.

"Going to be doing that a lot more often, and all over you"

Shaking off the dizziness, I slammed my head forward and head-butted him. He fell back clutching his face. I tackled him to the ground and started punching him repeatedly. All of a sudden, my muscles locked up and pain shot through me. A fucking Taser! He got me with a goddamn taser!

Mike pushed me off of him, and grabbed his gun. He bellowed at Trina and Robbie to stay where they were, and then pointed the gun at the group, still huddled around the to still body of Terry.

"Shouldn't have done that Jade, bad girls need to be taught a lesson." He grinned horribly. The pain was beginning to fade and I was starting to be able to move. It felt like a low voltage charge. Still painful, but not crippling.

He pointed the gun at Tori. No. No. No. I tried to gather myself, and it seemed to happen in slow motion, Mike pulled the trigger, and Holly launched herself in front of Tori, taking the bullets intended for her.

Holly spun and landed on the ground. I grabbed the Taser he dropped and tased his ass. Mike fell, twitching. Trina quickly joined Tori as they screamed and sobbed, demanding that Holly start moving again. I slowly worked my way over to her, and I could tell that she was a goner. The bullets had hit her in the chest, and had done far too much damage. Blood was pooling all around her. I grabbed her hand, "Stay with my Holly, come on, stay with me" I said.

Holly looked at me and smiled, "_please…take….care…my…baby_" Those were her last words; she gave a shuddering gasp, and then stopped breathing. Tori held her head as she screamed her sorrow and rage. Trina sobbed uncontrollably into Robbie's arms.

I felt my sorrow turn into blinding rage. I stood up and advanced on Mike, who still lay on the ground. He reached for his gun, but I stomped on his hand. Bones cracked. Mike howled in pain. I looked over at Jane, who held Terry close to her, and was crying endlessly, but making no noise, just a face of pure agony.

"Look what you did!" I shouted. "Destroyed two families!"

Mike didn't say anything. I looked back at Jane, and she caught my eye, and then nodded. I didn't have to look at Tori to know that she would agree. I whipped my gun out and pointed it at Mike's face.

"You don't have it in you" he snapped.

"I already killed one shit head skull kicker, what's one more?"

Mike's defiant look quickly faded out as he realized that I really was going to pull the trigger.

"Wait, I can show you out! I can show how to get to the coast! There's ships' there, picking people up all the time!" He babbled.

"Which city?!" I demanded.

"San Fransico! Just don't kill me!" He whined. It was pathetic.

I looked up when I heard a loud moan. Corpsers. Lots of them. "Beck" I said.

Beck nodded. We grabbed Holly and Terry and wrapped them up in blankets, and put them in the back of the truck. They piled into the cars. I held out my hand, and Mike grabbed it. Just as he finished standing up, I pulled the trigger. The bullet tore through his knee, and he dropped screaming. I turned and walked away. I climbed into the truck, and sat next to Tori and drew her into my arms. Tori sobbed silently into chest. I looked behind us as Cat drove away; the nearest corpsers shambled towards Mike's slow crawling form. He held up his and as if wanting to push them away or to get them to stop.

The corpsers fell on him.

**That was depressing. I'll see you all next time with hopefully a more cheerful chapter. No promises. **

**-C.H.**


	9. No time to mourn

Everyone was silent. It was hardly a surprise. We escaped from Eden, only to lose Terry and Holly. Both to a worthless piece of shit psychopath. Mike had been the goddamn snake. The traitor living in Eden. He destroyed the main gate, and with a horde on its way, we decided to escape. Mike came with, and tried to hold us hostage while waiting for the rest of the skull kickerz.

He intended to keep me as his personal slave, and to give the rest of my friends to the skull kickerz, no doubt to be raped repeatedly. Long story short, Mike shot Terry, Jane's son, and Holly sacrificed herself to save Tori.

No one had time to mourn. We buried the both of them on the side of the road, stayed there long enough to say a couple words, and then took off, before the corpsers or anyone else could find us.

Bouncing in the back of the pick up truck disrupted my thoughts. I glanced forward to look at Andre driving. Jane was sitting next to him, holding his hand. Jane looked back, the sadness still etched on her face.

"You should get some sleep, you just finished your driving shift."

I bit back a snappy retort. "I'm fine Jane. Just not tired."

"Bags under your eyes say other wise. You thinking about Mike?"

I flinched inwardly. I didn't regret killing him. I didn't lose any sleep over it either. I shook my head.

"No. He deserved it. I…I just keep dreaming of when my biggest complaint was the dumbasses at the coffee shop screwed up my order." I said quietly.

Jane nodded. "Yea, those dreams keep coming."

"How do you deal with them?" I asked, honestly curious.

"Andre pokes me awake."

Jane gave a tired smirk, and I returned it. Jane seemed to gather her thoughts before speaking again.

"I..I wake up. And I try to go back to sleep. It doesn't always work, but you have to sleep. Just hold on to what you have right there. And yes I know it's sappy, but its what works in this world." She held up her hand, entwined with Andre's to make her point.

I glanced at Tori, who had fallen asleep with her head on my lap. I thought I had been subtle about it, but the smirk from Jane said that I wasn't. I sighed. It was incredibly frustrating, but I knew I couldn't do anything. By some miracle that Tori felt the same way about me, I wouldn't be able to bring myself to touch her in anyway, especially after her mother died for her.

But that didn't matter; I had promised internally, that I would take care of Tori. That doesn't mean that I'm going to stop antagonizing her however. I'm just waiting for her to feel a little bit better.

I put my hand on her shoulder, and I felt her shake. I didn't know what to do. Again. I was never any good with this kind of thing. Emotions, I usually stayed with anger or none at all. Sorrow and loss, I knew about from when Beck and I broke up. But how does the ending of a relationship come even close to the loss of losing a parent? A parent who dies right in front of their eyes, sacrificing themselves to save their child.

I was starting to close my eyes, when I felt Tori's hand close over mine. I let her pull my hand closer to her face and she breathed deeply, and the little shakes seem to stop. I was surprised that Tori found comfort in being with me, but I wasn't going to complain.

I ignored her shifting around, but I opened my eyes when I felt her hand brush against my face. I grabbed her hand and held it close with mine.

"Gracias Amiga"

I would never admit it out loud, but hearing Tori speak Spanish was my biggest weakness.

You're Welcome Vega" I said.

Tori gave a wane smile and slowly fell back asleep. I leaned my head back and despite what I thought, sleep claimed me pretty damn fast.

Several hours later, our little caravan had stopped at an abandoned house. I stretched my legs, and tossed Jane the rifle I usually used. I grabbed my crossbow that I had taken to calling Blanca. Don't ask me why. Made sense at the time.

We moved as a group, clearing the place from top to bottom, finding only the decaying remains of a husband and a wife, who had taken their own lives. All of us were too tired to go and bury them, and it was with heavy hearts that we threw blankets over them and closed the door to the living room.

We all collapsed, but after a few seconds we all got up and left, and moved onto the next house which thankfully was completely devoid of corpses. Human and other wise. Hiding the vehicles behind the house, we began to make ourselves at home. We had been on the road for almost a week. Wandering around with no destination in mind.

I found Beck in one of the bedrooms, a sleeping Cat on the bed. I chuckled, amused at how fast Cat had lay claim to one of the beds.

"Beck?" I called out, softly, not desiring to wake Cat up.

"It's my fault. I shouldn't have agreed to let Mike come with. I should have…I should have…"

"You should have done what?" I asked incredulously. "You couldn't have known that he was a fucking psychopath and in bed with a bunch of other psychopaths? If it's anyone's fault it's mine, I should have fought better"

Beck gave me an incredulous look. "Like you could have known he had a fucking Taser."

I shook my head. "I knew something was off about him, and I just dismissed it as him being a complete and utter asshole."

"Seems like we lead this group of Hollywood Misfits, but we're not doing a very good job." Beck said quietly.

"You're both doing a good job. Neither of you could have known that Mike would…would do what he did."

Tori's voice cut in so suddenly that both Beck and I jumped. I turned and glared at her, but the glare was lost when I saw that her eyes were puffy and red. I hesitated to move towards her to do….something. Beck snuck up behind me and prodded me forward.

I stepped forward and took Tori in my arms, and after a few seconds I slowly led her to the recently found guest room. It was only when I closed the door that Tori broke down completely.

I held her as sobs racked her body, and she cried into the crook of my neck. After a bit, Tori stopped crying, and she started to speak.

"We couldn't…we couldn't mourn! We buried her and then left, so prayers no tears no moments nothing!"

She broke off to start sobbing again, but then she started to speak again. "And now you and Beck are blaming yourselves for what Mike did? It's not your fault; it'll never be your fault. You can't see the damn future."

I was silent, and then I spoke "I thought you would have hated me..for.. For failing to stop Mike."

"I did at first, but the hate wouldn't stay. It would just fizzle out, because I know that's not your fault, and no matter what you say or do you would never try and really hurt me."

I suppressed a gasp and fought to keep my face straight. "How do you know that Vega? I hurt everyone around me."

Tori shook her head. "You say and do mean things, but you're nice. Nice to the people you love"

My heart went into overdrive at the word love. I was surprised that Tori, whose head was resting near my chest couldn't hear or feel it. Or maybe she could and just wasn't going to bring it up. Either way, I was grateful.

I held Tori close as she cried herself to sleep. It was really cruel, the fact that we had absolutely no time to mourn. We barely had time to bury Holly and Terry. It was a huge risk, and I think we all knew in the back of our minds that the next time someone dies, unless we have a camp or a clear area, we wont be able to bury them.

I wanted to ask Tori why she went to me for comfort, when there was certainly everyone else who would be better at it then me. I'm pretty much heartless. Or so I keep telling myself over and over.

I managed to tuck Tori in under the blankets, and before I could leave, Tori's hand shot out and ensnared mine.

"No..don't leave. Safe with you"

Tori had mumbled that into the pillow, and I was grateful that she was pretty much asleep because I was blushing like no other. I shook my hand loose and changed into a tank top and a sleeveless shirt. Before I could get in the bed, Beck knocked and announced through the door that I was supposed to relieve Robbie of the watch in four hours. I sighed. I hated splitters. (Watches right smack in the middle of your sleep, forcing you to divide the amount of time you spend asleep. Pain in the fucking ass)

I climbed under the sheets, and Tori wrapped herself around me. I hesitated but in the end, I did the same to her. At first, sleep didn't want to come, as my head was filled with all of these images of my old life back in LA. Exams, coffee, movies. Simple and easy things like that. Mike's face floated through, but I immediately dismissed him.

He deserved to die. Nothing would ever change that. Besides, he wasn't the first person I killed, and I had a feeling, he wouldn't be the last one either. Tori mumbled something and snuggled deeper into my arms. I rested my head on top of hers. It felt…peaceful. Maybe tonight I would be able to get some real sleep. I could feel sleep coming to claim me. So I whispered

"Good night….Tori"

I'm pretty sure I imagined it, but I could swear I saw Tori smile when I said her first name.

**That's it for now. **

**-C.H.**


	10. Sleep and Peace

My watch was uneventful, and after staring out a window for four freaking hours, I was relieved by Trina. Her eyes were bloodshot, and I doubt it was just from being woken up at the ass crack of the night.

Back in LA, I would have never asked how Trina would be feeling, simply because I didn't like her or care about her. But now.. Now we had to at least attempt to care about each other, because we were all each other had.

"How are you holding up twi-Trina?"

Trina gave a ghost of a smile. "I'm alive Go-Jade. Thanks for watching out for Tori. She needs it. Now more then ever."

Everyone knew that Trina and Tori loved each other, but did their damndest to hide it. Even now. "Who's watching your back?" I asked.

"Robbie is, he can never take his eyes off of it"

I rolled my eyes at that and exited the room. Trina gave a light chuckle before taking up her vigil. I made my way back to the room that I was sharing with Tori. Along the way, I looked at the walls. They were completely bare, but I could see the faint outlines of where pictures used to hang. There were a lot of those faint outlines.

I think it's one of the worse things about the entire apocalypse. How quickly everything fell apart. One day everything was the same as normal, and the next…. My hand brushed the area where a picture was hanging. I sighed and continued on, wondering what the family thought as they fled this area. I chuckled, imagining the argument that must have raged across the house, as the husband grabbed and packed as much food and clothes as he could, and the wife grabbing all the pictures and the photo albums and trying to pack them.

I was still chuckling as I entered the room. I changed into my usual sleepwear and lay down on the bed. Tori had her back to me, and I brushed the hair from the side of her face and resisted the urge to give her a kiss. The urge was overwhelming, and it didn't help when she rolled over and faced me. Even asleep she looked beautiful. If anything she looked more beautiful as the worries and troubles of this world seemed to fade away to nothing.

I retracted my hand and fell against the pillow. I really need to learn to keep my hands to my self. I stared up at the ceiling, a torrent of thoughts racing through my head. Surviving, my feelings for Tori, the future, it went on. Never seeming to end. Tori snuggled into my side, and rested her head on my chest.

I sighed and closed my eyes. I better get some sleep.

"See anything?"

Tori's whisper seemed as loud as a scream in the silent room.

"How long were you awake?!" I demanded.

"Just now, I woke up when I rolled into you"

I breathed a silent sigh of relief. She hadn't seen me messing with her hair.

"I didn't see anything. These suburbs are as dead as your love life"

Tori frowned at that, and I gave her my trademark smirk. She huffed in irritation and pouted. I couldn't help but laugh. Tori blew a raspberry on my neck. The sudden sound and the feeling of her mouth on my neck had me gasping in lust and laughing from the very odd tickling sensation. It came out as a very odd sound. A sound I didn't want to be heard making again.

I grabbed her shoulders and pushed her over until she was on her back. I jumped up and pinned her down.

"Don't. Do. That. Again." I growled.

Tori just smirked at me. A second later she yawned, and before I could stop myself, I yawned as well.

"We need to get some sleep." I said, and then I dropped down right on top of her, knocking the wind out of her. Woops. That was an accident. Really.

Turned out to be bad move because I became very aware that my breasts were pressed right up against Tori's and from the look on her face, she was very aware of that as well.  
"I uh, I should move" I mumbled.

I rolled off of her, and Tori backed into my arms. Without thinking, I wrapped my arms around her and nuzzled into the back of her head. When it dawned on me what I was doing, it was far to late. Tori let out a content sigh, and seemed to be drifting off to sleep. I looked outside, and the darkness seemed to be fading. I thought about what Jane had said earlier. She was right. I let myself relax and I just enjoyed the fact that Tori was right here with me, and we didn't have to fight anyone.

For the first time in seven months, I fell asleep with a smile on my face.

I woke up to an empty bed. It didn't surprise me; even before the apocalypse Tori would sometimes be an early riser. Especially when she didn't have a watch to do in the middle of the goddamn night.

A light tapping on the doorframe got my attention. Tori came in followed by the rest of the Misfits.

I raised an eyebrow. "Holding a meeting in my room now guys?"

Beck chuckled, "We weren't going to originally but no one wanted to wake you up"

I grinned evilly and saw most of them flinch or look away. Nice to know that even now I could still intimidate people.

"Something wrong dear leader?" I asked.

Beck shook his head. "No, everything is…passable for right now."

"Then what's with this big meeting?" I asked somewhat impatiently. What? I didn't like having a crowd of people surround me while I'm in bed.

"We need to figure out what were going to do next. Can't just wander around, we risk losing people and running out of supplies." Trina broke in.

I looked around and saw everyone nodding in agreement about that. I knew that she was right.

"What about what Mike said? That ships were picking people up from places like San Francisco?" I asked.

"Was he even telling the truth, or trying to save his ass?" Andre asked.

"He was telling the truth, or as he knew it" Jane said.

Everyone looked at her, and she started to explain.

"Ships are picking people up from some of the coastal cities, but most of those cities have been over run by now. San Fran might be holding out, but I doubt it. Haven't heard anything from them in a long time"

"I think we should head north, less walkers up there, and probably less psychos up there too," Robbie said.

"And probably less supplies up there as well. Besides, Canada got it just as bad as the rest of America." Tori said with a sigh.

"Wait back up, what about your families?" I demanded.

The mood shifted to an even more depressed feeling. Everyone was silent as they shifted around, trying to figure out who should be the one to explain their sudden change. Eventually, lo and behold, it was Tori who spoke up.

"We- They want to keep looking for their families, but the odds…We cant go head first in SoCal, it's a dead zone. We would only risk" Tori stopped talking for a second, before she inhaled and started again. "We would only risk losing ourselves. Right now, we need to find a base, a home, somewhere we could return to and let us actually live, and that would give us a better chance of finding our-their families, instead of wandering all over the place"

Everyone was silent after Tori's little monologue. It didn't surprise me. To many it would seem like a selfish decision, to save ourselves before we risked everything to find the adults. But it had been over six months since the apocalypse, and we hadn't found anything. Holly had been a goddamn fluke. If I hadn't been shot, we would have driven right past Eden and never would have known she was there. But that didn't change the fact that they were right. If searches were to have any chance of success, we needed a home to return to.

But where to go? That is the real question. None of us could come up with an answer that all of us agreed on, so after a half an hour, I shooed everyone out. I wanted to go back to sleep. I didn't know when I would have the chance to sleep on an actual bed again. Even I didn't fall asleep, just being able to lie down and not hit anything felt wonderful.

The bed dipped a little as Tori sat next to me. She leaned against the headrest and didn't say anything. After several minutes, I forced my eyes open and looked at her, only to see that she had been staring at me.

"That's creepy Vega" I snapped.

"Sorry, but you looked so peaceful while asleep. It just looked nice."

Keeping my face straight was difficult, seeing as her words almost completely echoed my thoughts from a few hours ago.

"I talked to Beck, he said it looks like we might be able to stay here for a couple of days, while we figure out what our next plans are going to be"

I nodded. "Good, then I can enjoy this bed for a bit longer"

Tori chuckled at that, and she leaned back against the wall and started humming. I closed my eyes and tried to sleep. But sleep wouldn't come, no matter how I hard I tried or wanted it to. I kept imagining a swarm of corpsers breaking through and devouring me; or falling prey to bandits, or being caught and kept by people like Mike.

I tossed and turned, failing to get comfortable or finding any kind of peace. It wasn't until I felt my hand being enclosed by Tori's that I stilled.

"Don't worry Jade, I'm right here. I'll always be here"

I didn't say anything, just brought my hand over hers and held her hands tightly. Ever so slowly, I was able to relax. I stopped tossing and turning, and after what seemed like forever, I fell asleep, with the warmth of Tori's hands wrapped around mine.

**A short little break in between the violence of the zombie apocalypse. And lets here it for rapid fire updates! Don't know when I'll be able to do that again, but I'll try. This semester only has a few weeks left in it anyways. **

**-C.H.**


	11. Hollywood Misfit Family

I woke up to the sight of Tori lying on her side, her hands curled around mine. She had curled herself up, and had this angelic look of peace on her face. It was nice. I gently withdrew my hands from hers, and took the blankets and pulled them over her.

I turned around and nearly ran over Andre. I glared at him and pushed him out the door.

"The hell Andre?" I snapped.

"Just stopping by to see how you and Tori were doing. And to see if I was going to win my bet with Beck yet"

I glared at him. "Bet?" I snapped icily.

Andre nodded. "Yea, have a little bet with Beck."

"I know that genius, you all ready told me, what is the goddamn bet?"

"We better go find Beck"

"Andre you're not getting out of this!" I snapped as I followed him to the other end of the house. I had just grabbed his arm, when a moan emanated from Beck's room. Andre and I looked at each other. We both smiled.

Stealthily we moved towards the door and put our ears on it.

_Oh..Oh…Beck_

I would recognize that voice anywhere, even if it was mostly moaning. I glanced at Andre who was smiling.

"Go Cat" I whispered.

Andre nodded with a massive grin. Cat's moans starting increasing in frequency and volume so we beat a hasty retreat. We made it to the kitchen and found Jane talking with Trina and Robbie. Jane cut off her talk when she saw the shit eating grins Andre and I were wearing.

"What's so funny?" Jane asked.

I tilted my head, and at the kitchen you couldn't hear those two. I really should keep silent about this, but it was too funny to not spread around.

"Beck is boning Cat right as we speak, and it sounded like she was enjoying it"

Jane was stunned into silence by my bluntness. Trina and Robbie, who were more used to it, were still silent about it. Then Trina's face broke into a wide smile. "Good on Cat, she's been needing to get laid for a long time"

"Cat needs to what?" A voice said from behind me.

Andre and I turned around to see Tori standing there, rubbing her eyes and looking horrifically confused.

"Oh you didn't hear them on the way down Vega? Beck is playing the beast with two backs with Cat," I said. My smirk turned into a full-blown laugh at the look on Tori's face as what I said sunk in. Tori pushed past me muttering under her breath. Andre and I hung around the kitchen, talking with everyone over this and that. I pushed past Andre to get a drink, and I took the time to whisper into his ear that I hadn't forgotten about the bet he made with Beck. Andre flinched and moved away.

Some time later, Beck entered the kitchen, followed by Cat. He stopped when he saw all of us smiling at him. He stared at is for a few seconds before he went "They know Cat, don't even try to hide it"

Cat peaked her head out from behind Beck. "No one's mad?" she asked timidly, looking right at me. I shook my head. "No, no one is mad at you kit," I said, using the nickname I bestowed upon her.

Cat beamed a smile, and the tension seemed to fly out the room. Cat then practically shouted, "You were right Jade, Beck is awesome!"

Beck whirled and face palmed and looked everywhere else but at us, while everyone was immediately silenced. I smirked. "I told you Kit. And he's fast learner too"

Cat enthusiastically shook her head in agreement. Beck blushed and didn't comment. Jane then spoke up "How is he on imagination? Because Andre has that in spades"

Andre's jaw seemed to hit the floor, as did everyone else's. Save for Cat who seemed to ponder about what Jane has said.

"Don't know, need to learn more to find out!"

Beck chose that moment to break in "I have no problem with that" and everyone laughed.

I glanced at Tori, who was beet red. I laughed at her. "Hey Trina, how's Robbie?" Jane suddenly asked.

Robbie immediately starting babbling about how nothing was going on at all and Trina wouldn't know anything.

"Cut the shit kid" Jane said cutting him off. "I heard you two last night right before Trina went on watch. And going by the amount of noise Trina was making, obviously Robbie knows what he's doing"

"It's that ventriloquism that he used to do all the time, he certainly knows how to move his mouth, and his tongue." Trina said dreamily.

Robbie looked like he was about to swallow his tongue, and Tori was the reddest I had ever seen her be. All the guys were staring at Robbie like they had never seen him before.

"Something wrong Vega?" I asked.

"I didn't need to hear any of this"

I laughed at her, and soon after everyone joined in. We started discussing our various love lives, and the weirdest things we had ever done.

"Most public? The back of Vega's car while waiting for her in the school parking lot." I said.

Tori almost swallowed her tongue, and then quickly erupted. "You had sex in the back of my car?!" she shouted.

I nodded. "You shouldn't have taken so long to leave Hollywood Arts"

When Tori glared at Beck, he just gave a halfhearted shrug. She continued to glare at him, and he said, "You can't honestly expect me to say no to Jade. She's a tigress in bed."

I smirked and just nodded. Tori stopped glaring and just fell back against the counter, blushing.

Jane and Trina took turns regaling us with random stories about horrible boyfriends and weird places they had fun in. Tori surprised us all by chiming in about her ex-boyfriend who was a hard-core exhibitionist.

Laughing at embarrassing stories, playing games with each other, it really seemed like we were a family. I looked around. I would never admit it out loud, but these people; Andre, Beck, Cat, Tori, Robbie, even Trina, and now Jane, they were my friends and family. And from the way the world was looking, we were all that we had.

We talked and laughed the day away, and normally that would have been cause for concern, but no one seemed to want to care. I immediately called first watch and headed upstairs to the window.

I was staring out the window, when I heard footsteps behind me. I turned around and saw Tori, who was still wearing a ghost of a smile. I nodded at her and turned back out the window.

Tori came up and sat down next to me.

"I can't believe you had sex in the back of my car"

"I can. Seems like something that I would do. Besides, it was surprisingly comfortable."

Tori burned red and glared at me. "I'm surprised that your face isn't permanently red"

Tori fumed and didn't say anything.

"Something bothering you Vega?" I asked gently.

Tori didn't say anything, just continued to stare out the window.

"Everyone had these stories, of sex and just having fun. I made out a guy or two, and that was it. It didn't seem like I had anything worth talking about." Tori whispered.

"You want to know how many people I've slept with? One. And that's Beck. And some of those stories were completely made up. Beck and I didn't have sex in the back of your car, we just made out"

"Why did you say that then?"

"Because the look on your face was hilarious. Because we were just telling stories. You don't need to feel left out, just laugh and enjoy being with your friends. And I'm sure you have some of your own stories of things that I've never been apart of."

Tori looked away, and then spoke up again.

"I was waiting for the right person, I don't like the idea of random flings. Does that make me weird? Everyone else seemed to have flings"

I snorted. "No it doesn't make you weird, it's just your preferences. Having sex, or choosing to not have sex doesn't make you any better or worse then everyone else"

"You think so Jade?"

"I know so To-Vega"

Tori smiled and leaned against my side, and I lifted up my arm and wrapped it around her. We didn't say anything for fifteen minutes, just stared out the window.

Something moving at the edge of the street caught my attention. At first I dismissed it as an animal, but when I took a second look, I realized it was walking upright.

No. No. No please let this be just some stupid human looking for a place to sleep, or just one corpser. We have it nice here; I didn't want to leave.

The being tripped and face planted on the sidewalk. It crawled forward, and took the better part of five minutes to right itself and start walking again. No, shambling again. When it started moving upright, more of them came around the corner. All of them were spreading out in random directions, and some were heading down the street.

"Jade" Tori whispered.

"Go get the others, tell them we have undead company. A lot of them"

Tori nodded and took off. I grabbed Blanca and made sure the other bolts were in easy grabbing distance. I leaned against the wall, making sure I couldn't be viewed from the street. A small clatter behind me nearly gave me a heart attack. Tori smiled apologetically and moved to the other side of the window. She had her rifle in her hands.

"Everyone is upstairs, ready to start shooting from the windows. Beck suggests that you switch to a rifle."

"Don't have enough, Jane has mine," I whispered.

Tori nodded. "Oh god, they're coming towards the house"

I glanced down and saw that she was correct. I swore violently. Where the hell had they come from? Could we get out the back if we were swarmed? I shook my head. No we couldn't, we would be overrun in a heartbeat if we went outside. We would just have to sit through this and pray to the god that I didn't believe in.

We stared at the growing shamble of corpsers as they marched by. It was nerve racking. We had parked our cars in the back and locked the fence, but what about up front? They could hit the door, or the windows, or something. To many things could go wrong.

"Hey Vega, you said you were waiting for the right person? Who is it?" I whispered. I really needed to take my rapidly panicking mind off of the fact that they're at least a hundred corpsers right outside the house. Tori looked grateful that I had started talking.

"I have one person in mind…and. And I'm pretty sure she likes me."

My eyes widened, "She? You're bi Vega?"

Tori nodded. "You are right?"

I gave a halfhearted shrug. "Seems so. Very selective over which girl I like"

Tori nodded at that, and we held out breath as a corpser shambled onto the front porch. It wandered around the porch before falling off of the stairs.

Beck popped up behind us. "Hopefully this will clear out some in the morning. We're leaving then. Heading northward. We'll figure more out later."

Tori and I nodded.

Tori looked out the window. I put a hand over hers. "We'll be fine Vega. Trust me"

"I know. But I liked it here; it was nice, not having to wake up on the run, constantly looking over our shoulder. I didn't even mind the lack of hot water"

I chuckled. "I minded the lack of hot water, but we'll find more places like that at some point. If what Jane said is true, we might even be able to take to the sea or something."

"You think we should take to the sea?"

"Seems like the safest thing. I mean, I can't think of anywhere else that's free of people and corpsers."

Tori thought about it, and then nodded. "If we can find out about living at the sea, then yea I would agree with you"

Robbie crept up to us, "I'm on watch now, and the main floor is all locked up and boarded up so we can sleep easy"

We both bade Robbie good night as we headed back to our room. I placed Blanca right next to the bed, and lay down. I put my hand on the bed and just felt it. How long would it be before I could lie down on a mattress again?

Tori's hand skimmed along my arm until she hit my hand, and her fingers slid in between mine.

"We should take the pillows and blankets with us, so we can sleep easier in the cars." She said.

"Good idea. Damn good idea Vega"

"Could you…Could you please stop calling me Vega?" She whispered.

I looked at her; it was the first time that Tori had ever asked me that.

"After all of this, fighting to live, sharing the same bed, using each other as a f-f..fucking pillow, staying with each other no matter what…I think I've earned the right to be called by my first name! Like a real friend! You did it before!"

All of this came out in a rush, and after words, she seemed guilty about getting upset. She did have a point. I wouldn't admit it out loud, but by now we were friends. Family even.

"Okay Tori." I said.

Tori turned to me in shock, and after a second she broke into this massive smile. I squeezed our hands together and gave a small smirk.

Beck slammed the door open, startling the both of us. "Get your shit, we're leaving now." With that he turned and sprinted away. Tori and I looked at each other for a second then grabbed our neatly packed things and starting running after him. I was still in shorts and a tank top but that didn't matter.

"What's going on?!" I demanded.

"Jane was on the roof, used some binocs and saw even more biters on their way. At least a swarm." Trina answered.

We threw the stuff into the cars, and when Tori showed up with the blankets and pillows from the room, everyone but me stared at her for a few seconds, then sprinted back into the house in order to get their own pillows and sheets. We piled into the cars; Tori and I were with Jane and Andre, and everyone else into the other car. Beck was driving, and he slammed on the gas and started tore through the fence and the various backyards. After driving through several people's property (Which was a lot of fun) we hit the road. Both cars smashed several corpsers and sent them flying. We rocketed forward, weaving in and out of the abandoned cars, before hitting the high way. True to what Beck had said, we were heading north.

I looked back at the expensive neighborhood we had abandoned. I sighed, it had seemed like home. I felt a hand on my shoulder, and I turned and looked at Tori, who was giving me a reassuring smile. I looked at Jane and Andre, who in there own ways giving the same smile.

I changed my mind. My home was right here, with these idiots called the Hollywood Misfits.

I smiled back at them and rubbed the back of Blanca. Time to find another place to rest. With everyone.

**I don't like Tuesdays all that much. They're so…there. And annoying. **

**-C.H.**


	12. Rest Please Rest

I pulled the trigger and the crossbow bolt shot forward and slammed into the corpsers face. It dropped like a stone. Next to me, Tori pulled the trigger and her rifle barked several times. All around me, the Hollywood misfits fought off the herd. An eternity later, Beck called out that it was clear. We walked out, apprehensively, checking each corpse to make sure it was truly dead.

I yanked the bolts out of the corpsers. Not even bothered by the gore that often came with it.

Beck looked mad over this recent firefight. No surprise, it used up ammo. And it's not like we had a lot to begin with. I went around, badgering the others into revealing how they felt and what their thoughts were. Once I gathered all the information, I walked over to Beck.

Beck was leaning against the side of the car, eyes closed and facing up to the sky. Andre stood next to him, shaking his head.

"Am I interrupting something?" I asked.

Andre gave a chuckle one might hear at a graveyard.

"No. Just wondering where this herd came from and when the hell we would be able to get some rest"

I nodded, and all at once all of the exhaustion of the past few weeks or days came crashing down on me. I didn't remember how long it had been since we hit the road from Eden. I leaned back and fell into the arms of someone. I looked back at Tori, who gave an exhausted smile. I couldn't bring myself to return the smile. After we fled the rich neighborhood, we had been chased around the entire area. Every time we thought we had a place to stay, beings dead or alive would chase us away. Combined with the almost constant ambushes on the road, we were reaching the end of our rope.

"Where to now Beck?" Jane asked.

Beck sighed and tried to suppress any signs of exhaustion on him. It might have worked on anyone else, but we all saw through him. No one, not even me dared to comment on how tired he was.

"Hit the road, keep driving. Find a place to sleep for a bit."

"So the usual then?" Jane snapped.

"Unless you have a better idea, I suggest you shut your goddamn mouth" I snapped. Jane stepped forward and I stepped out of Tori's arms towards Jane. Before anything could happen, everyone crowded around us and separated us.

I didn't put up a fight to that simply because I didn't have the energy. And from the look on Jane's face, the resistance she put up was all just for show. I gave a halfhearted growl from Tori's arms, but made no other movement. Jane glared from Trina and Andre's arms, but she too didn't do anything.

Beck sighed and said "Tori and Jade with Cat and I, everyone else in the pickup truck. Follow my car; we'll be heading towards the suburbs to find a place to stay."

With great resignation we headed to the cars. I took the drivers seat and Tori sat in the passenger seat.

"Can't stand to be separated from me Tori?" I asked. I waited for the customary denial and whining voice, but when I glanced at Tori, she was knocked the hell out. I chuckled and grabbed a blanket from the back seat and draped it over her.

Beck and Cat slid into the car and Beck almost immediately fell asleep. Cat grabbed a pillow and leaned against Beck. She was struggling to stay awake.

"Don't stay awake on my account Kit. Get some sleep. I'll be fine."

Cat glanced at me as I started the car. "You sure?" she asked softly. I nodded and waved my hand in a dismissive motion. Cat leaned back and a few minutes later, she was out. Twitching every so often.

We drove for what seemed like forever. When the danger of me falling asleep behind the wheel became to great, I pulled off the road into this massive clearing. I glanced around the car, and everyone was still asleep. I shook Beck's leg until he woke up. I quickly explained that I was too tired to go on, and I was taking a short nap.

Beck nodded, and he directed me to park near the trees, in order to hide the cars from passerbies. A quick check on the others in the pick up truck, and I fell back in the car. Exhaustion quickly claimed me. We all slept for several hours; and felt slightly more alive. It was as good as sleeping in a bed, but it's better then nothing. Beck took over driving, and we went back on the road.

Hours passed before we came to a gated community. Breaking the chain, we drove through before closing it. Turning around, we ran into the community people. They all had weapons aimed at us. We aimed ours right at them. An old woman who called herself Sykes managed to defuse the situation before it turned into a blood bath.

We got an abandoned house to call our own, and we agreed to help defend the place should anything happen. We reached the house, and explored the place from top to bottom. Only then did we allow ourselves to even consider relaxing. Glancing outside showed that the members were watching us. That was to be expected. We ignored them.

I headed to one of the bedrooms and collapsed on the bed. Tori came in and collapsed right next to me, with her head on my lower back.

"Can't stand to be away from me Tori?" I asked.

"Not right now no, you make a good pillow"

"I don't know if I should be flattered by that"

Tori chuckled. "You should. You" The rest of her sentence was cut off by a yawn. I couldn't stop myself from yawning as well. I got up and slowly changed out of my clothes. I got down to my bra and underwear before declaring a loud "Fuck it" and sliding into the bed. Tori got her shorts on and a sleeveless shirt before getting into the bed.

I was out the moment my head hit the pillow.

I don't know how long I slept. All I know was that it was past eight hours. When I finally woke up, I didn't make any movement other then to roll over and stare at the ceiling. How long would it be before we were chased out of here? How long before we had to take to the roads again?

Jane came in at that moment.

"Andre and everyone else are still out. The community seems leery of us, but they wont do anything. Old Lady Sykes seems to be a power here. Convinced the rest to leave us alone."

I grunted but didn't say anything.

Jane slid down to the ground and said "Beck says that we should be able to get a couple days. Or something like that. He mumbled into the pillow. Poor guy is still out like a light. Cat woke up a couple times but that was it."

I smirked and fell back against the bed. Tori was still there, asleep as well and twitching violently in her sleep.

After a few minutes of talking, I shooed Jane out and wrapped my arms around Tori. She twitched in her sleep and seemed to be fighting off something. I pulled her close and closed my eyes. Hoping, for the only peace left in this hellish world, the peace called sleep.

**Exhaustion, what I'm feeling now since I really wanted to type this instead of going to sleep. Probably not one of my smarter moves. Meh.**

**-C.H.**


	13. Change for the better?

I didn't know how long I slept. I didn't even know what day it was. I suppose it didn't matter. A small part of me thought it did matter, but I didn't really care. I shifted in the bed, and my head pressed into something. Opening my eyes, I saw that my head was resting in Tori's lap.

I raised my head and looked at her in confusion. "When did?"

Tori gave a wane smile. "This morning, after you helped me with my nightmares, I wanted to help you. I mean, you just looked so miserable and I didn't know what to do and this seemed like the smart thing to do-I think"

I held up a hand to cut off her babbling. "Don't pull a Cat Tori"

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?!" a voice called out through the door.

We both looked at each other, before getting up and marching to the door. I yanked it open, and Cat fell in, closely followed by Jane. It was obvious they had been leaning against the door listening in on us. I glared at them, and even Tori seemed angry with them. Both gave sheepish smiles, and picked themselves off of the floor and backed up before fleeing down the hall.

I slammed the door shut behind them. Eavesdroppers. I'll get them for that.

"Why would they be eavesdropping like that?" Tori asked.

I knew why, it was because they assumed that Tori and I would be getting together at some point. I refused to tell her that, so I just shrugged my shoulders and walked back to bed. I leaned against the headrest and breathed a sigh of relief, that everything was safe for the moment. Tori plopped her self in my lap and drew her arms around my neck. I put my arms around her waist but otherwise made no other movement. We just sat there together, for several minutes.

"Hey Jade, we seem to be together a lot." Tori said into my neck.

I opened one eye and looked at her. "You're just realizing this?" I asked.

"No, just commenting on it. I think it's nice."

"That's nice"

"Hey Jade, Truth or Dare?"

That got my attention. "Truth or Dare? Should I get the rest of the misfits or is this just a game for us?" I asked incredulously.

Tori gave that smile that I seriously loved. "No just for us."

"What are you planning Tori? I had to twist your arm to get you to play Truth or Dare at Cat's house." Tori narrowed her eyes at me, no doubt because of my overtly suspicious tone.

"That was different, everyone wanted me to kiss or something like that with people I didn't want to do anything with. It was like they didn't want me to kiss the person I wanted to kiss"

"Who did you want to kiss?" I asked. Curiosity got the better of me. Again. Tori looked away, and she seemed scared. But this fear didn't seem the fear of fighting for her life or in danger of losing someone she cared about, more like the fear of rejection. (I got really good at reading Tori soon after we met…. Just leave it alone)

"Promise not to get mad?" She asked so softly that for a second I didn't think she hadn't talked at all.

I nodded. That didn't satisfy her. I huffed in irritation and then said, "I promise I wont get mad. Now spill woman"

Tori took my hands and wrapped them together with hers.

"You."

That one word stunned me. I didn't know how to respond. Except maybe to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming. I couldn't have been dreaming, because even in my wildest dreams she never said anything like that. Never. I felt Tori starting to shift off of my lap, and quickly returned to Earth to see her trying to leave.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said something like that. It was a mistake, I'll lea" I grabbed her and pinned her to the bed, interrupting her midsentence.

"Jade what are!"

I cut her off again. This time with a kiss. They were the softest lips I had ever felt. My brain, and reality itself seemed to short circuit. Only when I started to run out of oxygen did I stop the kiss. Tori's head followed up seemingly to continue the kiss, but she quickly fell back, a little opened mouth with shock and lust.

"This…This…This isn't a dream right? Because I would be really sad if it was," Tori said happily.

I pinched her side. Tori quailed and tried to shift out from underneath me, but I kept her pinned. "Doesn't seem like a dream," I said.

Tori glared but offered no other comment. Her hands ghosted along my sides and my back. I enjoyed her gentle touches. "I can't believe you opened the door in your bra and panties"

"Ugh, don't say that. Such a disgusting word. And like you're complaining. I saw you staring"

Tori blushed and looked away. "It's a nice sight." She mumbled under her breath.

I smirked. I slowly began to work her shirt off of her, and lo and behold, she made no move to stop me, if anything she helped me out. I quickly got her pants off of her, and the look on her face was just too much. I smashed my lips against hers. This wasn't a chaste kiss, it was…everything. I slipped my tongue in her mouth and from the noise she made, she hadn't been expecting that. That didn't stop her from replying with gusto however.

I reach back and unsnapped my bra, and flung it across the room. Tori did the same with hers. With dueling tongues we fell back against the bed, and we ground ourselves against each other. It felt amazing. Everything I had ever dreamed of and more.

My hands trailed down her sides to between her legs. I rubbed her core and her legs spread, granting me easier access. I rubbed against her harder then before and she started moaning loudly.

_Ah ah si si ah Jade!_

Jesus those sounds. I wanted to hear them again. I moved off of her mouth and slowly traced kisses down her throat until I reached her chest. I took one nipple in my mouth and gently nibbled and sucked on it. That really set her off, moaning and thrashing against the bed. My other hand pulled her underwear down, and I slipped two fingers into her. I curled them repeatedly and pulled them in and out.

_Ah Si ah Si yes oh my god Si JADE!_

Tori's entire body tensed up for several seconds, and then like wires snapping, her body went loose and she twisted and moaned underneath me. This went on for several seconds as I mercilessly kept moving my fingers in her, greatly prolonging her orgasm. I pulled my fingers out, and Tori collapsed, completely limp with a dazed but grateful smile plastered on her face. I smiled and fell beside her.

I wasn't lying there to long when I felt her hands on my thighs.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Paying you back for that"

Paying me back? The hell she talk-oh. Oh. OH. That's what she was talking about. Somewhere at some point I lost my underwear, but I didn't care. Her hands splayed my thighs and pushed them apart, and her tongue found my center.

Jesus was there nothing that she couldn't do? Her tongue flailed all around inside me, and try as I might to fight against it, I was soon thrashing and twisting around. My hands found her hair and pulled her closer. (Which I didn't think was possible but whatever)

All to soon for my liking, my muscles locked up and lights exploded behind my eyes. One loud _Tori_ later, my muscles came loose and I collapsed back against the bed.

"Where….Where did you learn to do that?" I gasped.

Tori blushed and said "Andre's porn bank"

"Remind me to thank him."

Tori burned even redder and then said "What should we tell them?"

"I'm sure they all ready know. You weren't exactly quiet and neither was I. We'll just tell them that we're dating. We are right?"

Tori laughed and lightly kissed me on my lips. "Come one, we've been lying down all day. Lets go explore this place!"

I laughed and grabbed a towel. After a second thought, I grabbed Tori's hand and yanked her towards the shower. After a very long hot (in more ways then one) and enjoyable shower, Tori and I headed downstairs. In the living room, we found Beck and Cat sitting together. Both turned very large grins on us.

"Win your bet?" I asked.

Beck nodded. "Andre is doing the driving for the week when we hit the road again!"

"Bet? What bet?" Tori demanded.

I grabbed her waist pulled her down to the couch. I kept a tight grip on her to make sure that she wouldn't leap up and do something stupid. With my nod, Beck explained that he and Andre had made a bet over when Tori and I would get together. (I had figured that out a long time ago) What I didn't know, was that Beck had bet that Tori and I would have sex on the first day we started dating, while Andre had bet that we would wait.

Tori fumed and would have launched herself at Beck if I hadn't held her down.

"You were pretty loud Tori, I think the whole neighborhood heard you" Cat said.

I laughed. "I'm just that talented" I said.

"And you were just as loud." Beck said.

I shrugged. "Girl's got talent." Tori sat there silently, no doubt wondering if she should be flattered or insulted. We started laughing, and all four of us sat there, chatting the day away. We were later joined by the rest of the Misfits, and each in their own ways congratulated us. And also said variations of it's about damn time. We all had a good laugh about that, mostly because I knew I agreed with them, and I was positive that Tori did as well.

I had always thought that we would never be together, simply because I didn't think Tori had any feelings towards me. As sudden as this was, I was glad I had been proven wrong. A loud knocking on the front door interrupted out conversation. We glanced at each other and spread out. Beck advanced on the door, and we each readied whatever weapon we had near ourselves.

Beck opened the door to find old lady Sykes on the doorstep.

"The community is holding a prayer vigil in the cull de sac. We would appreciate it if you came." Her voice was oily sweet.

Beck nodded, and even though it had been phrased politely, it had been an order. We all bristled at that, after being on our own and answering to no one for so long, we didn't appreciate being ordered around.

Beck thanked Sykes and closed the door on her. "What do you kids think?"

"I saw we go, I don't care about the praying or any of that shit, but we gotta make sure that these aren't some religious psychos" I said.

"Crass way to put it, but I agree with her" Jane said. Everyone voiced their various agreements, and we headed out the door. That ominous feeling came crashing down on me. I took Tori's hand in mine, and she favored me with a smile, and that ominous feeling started to recede. It was still there, but for the first time since the fall, I felt like I could take on the world, and win.

**A sudden change! Why not?**

**-C.H. **


	14. Time to go!

We walked towards the cul de sac somewhat apprehensive about what we might find there. Even before the fall we had some religious nut-jobs in Las Angeles, but thankfully they were nothing but talk. Prone to spout mountains of hate and other bullshit. But after the fall, who's to say what they would do? Maybe this would just be a group thing that they do to make themselves feel better.

And maybe I'll start wearing pink and put pretty flowers in my hair as I dance and sing about love.

I was still holding Tori's hand when Syke's voice started floating towards us. She was shouting in rage. Even as far as we were, we could make out what she was saying.

"Because of those scum! We are in this situation because of those fags and dykes and who knows what else!"

I immediately dropped Tori's hand. Almost as if we had been reading each other minds, we sprang apart. We glanced at each other and fought to keep a straight face.

"Trina, go with Robbie and start packing up the place. And do it fast!" Beck snapped. Trina and Robbie took off. "Be smooth!" I snapped. They stopped sprinting and walked off quickly.

We walked towards the gathering, stiff as boards. As we got closer, we heard more and more of what Sykes was saying. She stood above them, on top of some beat up car. She was shouting and raving. And all around her, the crowd ate it up and demanded more.

"Beck why are we here?!" I demanded under my breath.

"Information I guess?" Beck then swore. He had made a mistake keeping us here instead of taking the chance to leave. Each of us shot him sympathetic looks. None us blamed him; not only was he our friend, (or more than in Cat's case) but he lead us pretty damn well since all of this started. Besides, no one's perfect.

Sykes continued to rant and rave. She blamed homosexuals and a host of other people for the fall. She went on in that vein for the better part of an hour. At the end of it, when she called on everyone to give thanks we got ready to leave. As the crowd slowly dispersed, we started to move back towards the house.

Thankfully we got there without incident. Trina and Robbie had moved quickly and gotten everything packed up.

"Where are we going to go?" Jane asked.

"Anywhere that's not here!" Andre said, answering for Beck.

We all voiced our agreements on that. I glanced at Tori, who seemed worried. While everyone was packing up, I grabbed her hand dragged her off to the corner of the house.

"What's wrong?"

Tori looked away. She didn't answer or even say anything. I pushed her against the wall and pressed myself against her. I took her face in my hands.

"Ignore Sykes. She's a bitch. Some stupid bigoted bitch. You're stuck with me for the foreseeable future. And you're not going to get me killed or anything like that. Got it?"

Tori stared deep into my eyes. She still didn't say anything, except to plant the deepest most emotional kiss I have ever felt on my lips. My brain short-circuited and I put my hands on her hips. I returned the kiss and felt Tori smile. After what seemed like forever, we split apart, panting.

Tori ran her hands over my face. "Stuck together huh?" she whispered.

"Damn straight."

We exited the corner and went outside. We saw the misfits standing outside near the cars.

"What's going o" my sentence ended in a hiss. The old hag Sykes was standing in front of our cars. Sykes stood a little over 5'5. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and it was grey with occasional streaks of black in it. She had a pinched face, and in all honesty, looked perpetually constipated.

"Are you planning on leaving us so soon? We were hoping you would bring some youthful faces to our community." Her voice when she wasn't screaming about god was disgustingly oily sweet.

"Yes we are, thanks for everything but we really have to find our families." Beck said as politely as he could.

But her attention wasn't on him. Her gaze slid past him to Tori and I.

"You two seem close…." She said.

"It's pretty natural for sisters to be close. Right Trina?" Tori snapped.

"Damn straight!" Trina roared.

"Sisters? I see how you and this Trina are related, but I'm not so sure about this…"

"Ever hear of adoption idiot?" I snapped.

Sykes face got even more pinched and rage was quickly overtaking her. So she couldn't stand to be insulted. Interesting.

"If you're related, I'm sure you know where they live." Sykes snapped with that oily voice of hers.

"2967 Watersprout Road Los Angeles California 90218" I answered without hesitation. I noticed that everyone else were surprised that I knew the Vega's address by heart, but Tori wasn't in the least bit surprised.

Sykes however missed everyone's surprise and had no way to respond to my instant answer. After half a minute, she gathered her self up and snapped "Well night is almost upon us so we wont be opening up the gates. You'll have to leave tomorrow." Without she turned around and stalked off, her nameless bodyguards trailing close behind like idiot dogs.

"How did you know our address?" Trina demanded the moment Sykes was out of earshot.

"Simple. I did. Quick thinking there Tori."

Tori beamed at that. Beck quickly cut in "We're leaving tonight. We're going to break through the gates. Get in the cars now!"

We didn't argue and quickly piled into the cars. Andre and Jane along with Tori and I piled into the pick up truck. When we had first found the thing, I had disliked it size. But now, it was going to be a life savor.

Andre revved the engine and then took off. Beck or whoever was driving followed closely behind. People stood in front of the gate, waving at us to slow down. Andre didn't. He sped up and slammed through the gate, pretty much destroying it. All of us whooped in joy at the sound and sight of the breaking gate.

We drove on for a few hours, and it was largely uneventful, save for when a corpse appeared in front of the speeding truck was promptly ran over. That gave us all a sever heart attack.

"Where to now Beck?" Andre asked into the walkie-talkie.

"Head north. We'll find a place to stay somewhere."

"Why did we just storm out of there?" Jane asked. "Sure Sykes was batshit but"

"But nothing" Beck said interrupting her. "You didn't see the look she gave me when I said that we were leaving. It was insane. And something about that place just seemed…wrong."

"It really did" Tori said. "I'm glad we dipped out tonight instead of waiting. Who knows what might have happened if we had stayed."

"What you think she was trying to set up her own cult or something?" I asked

"Trying? Fuck that! Did you see the people at the prayer group?" Jane said. "They were gobbling up everything she said with spoons and demanding more. From what I saw, it looked like they fucking revere her or some shit like that."

"What she said" Beck called out through the walkie.

I snarled in frustration. It seemed like we just couldn't fucking win.

"_Jade, how did you know what I was thinking back at the house?"_ Tori said in Spanish.

" _I figured you would be worried about some of the things Sykes said, like putting the people they cared about in danger, simply because they liked someone of the same sex. And slow down, I can't understand you when you speak that fast."_ I responded in the same language.

Jane and Andre looked confused as hell, since obviously they couldn't understand it. Tori unbuckled her seatbelt and lay down on top of me. She grabbed a blanket and practically cocooned herself into it along with me. She didn't sleep; just lay there, presumably listening to my heartbeat. She had her hand over my chest, and rose and fell with every breath I took.

Our peaceful moment was broken by Andre running over several corpsers.

"Sorry guys!" Andre said, though he didn't sound all that sorry at all. Idiot.

I pulled Tori back to me and glanced behind me. I nearly shrieked when I saw the partially destroyed face of a corpse pressed up against the glass.

"Andre breaks!"

Andre slammed on the breaks and swerved the truck. The corpser literally flew off into the darkness. After a few seconds of everyone regaining their breath and calming down, we started driving again.

I took stock back on the day. We had discovered a community run by an egotistical batshit bigot, escaped, ran over a bunch of corpsers, and now were stuck on the road again. I also got to have sex with Tori and start a relationship with her. Definitely the high light(s) of my day.

Despite that, I couldn't help but feel that this wasn't the last we had seen of Sykes. No, I knew, she would be coming back. She was scorned and she would want revenge. That's just fan-fucking-tastic. Like we didn't have enough shit to deal with.

"Hey Jade" Andre said, interrupting my thoughts.

"What?"

"When did Tori teach you how to speak Spanish? Is that how you learned to memorize her address?"

"Shut up and drive Andre"

**Hope you all are having a good weekend. I am. This semester is pretty much done! Well, as soon as I get do my damn finals. But whatever.**

**-C.H. **


	15. Respite to something else

Tori thrashed and moaned all over the bed. Her hands snaked into my hair and grabbed my head, pulling me closer. My tongue slipped deeper into her and looking up, I could see her eyes bug out and lift her head up.

A loud _Jade!_ And a slew of Spanish to fast for me to even try to understand, Tori collapsed back onto the bed limp as a wet noodle. I chuckled and slowly crawled forward over her naked body. My knee bumped her core and she flinched and moaned.

"Don't do that!" she tittered.

"Do what? This?" I said as I pressed against her.

"Yea-ye-oh!"

I laughed but eased off of her. I kissed her a few times, and we just lay together. I nuzzled into her neck and just enjoyed being back in a house with a bedroom to ourselves.

I gasped when I felt Tori's hands between my legs. Her fingers were ghosting up and down my thighs, never quite coming close but just close enough to be teasing and to feel damn good.

"Stop….Teasing me Tori!" I gasped.

Tori just smirked and kept going at it. I rolled off of her, hoping to get away, but she just followed.

"Say please" Tori whispered into my ear.

"Excuse.._ah_ me?"

"Say please, this is payback for the car"

I growled and grabbed her chest and twisted and pulled her nipples. Tori gasped and pushed her chest towards me. I attacked her lips and our tongues fought and rampaged across each other's mouths.

There. I think she's distracted now. I grabbed her hand and forced it to my soaking core and slipped in two of her fingers. I ground forward, moaning in relief.

"That's not fair Jade!" Tori whined above me. (Or tried to, my other hand was still all over her chest skill fully playing)

"Who _Ah _Said _ah ah _life was _oh god_ fair?"

Tori pouted, but that didn't stop her from twisting her fingers inside of me. Her thumb hit that bundle of nerves and I nearly lost it. My hands grabbed her back and pulled her close. Dimly I was aware of the fact that my nails had sunk into her skin, but I was on cloud nine so I didn't pay much if any attention to that at all.

When Tori attached herself to my neck and nibbled, and started murmuring in Spanish in a sultry tone, I lost all semblance of self-control. I didn't even make a sound, I just lifted up and seemed to be pushing myself towards her fingers and my body went rigid. I shuddered as the orgasm(s) racked my body. After what seemed like forever I collapsed back onto the bed.

Tori rolled her shoulders above me. "You need to cut your nails"

I was still reveling in the sexual euphoria, so I just ignored her.

"For someone who's chase, you're pretty damn good at this." I said in wonder.

Tori blushed but thanked me.

"Still mad about the car?" I asked.

Tori fumed and glared at me.

I laughed. A few days ago, before we found the house we're currently staying in, Tori as usual had been using me as a pillow. Beck and Robbie had been up front driving. Underneath the blankets, I had started rubbing against her. I had moved my hands down and started moving my hands in between her legs. I kept this up until Tori woke up, but seeing as Beck and Robbie had been right there, she couldn't do anything. She waited until we all stopped for a break and then Beck and Andre were barely out of the car before she tossed her clothes off and ravished me. I of course returned the favor.

She had been mad about being teased and the being made to wait. Obviously she was still mad about it. (I on the other hand would be doing that again. A teased and self-repressed Tori was fantastic, I was walking on sunshine for hours if not days after that tumble)

Tori lay down next to me, and gave me a smile. I returned it, though true to my way I didn't let it get to big. I looked around the room, and it was barren. Who ever had last lived here had taken everything with them.

After our dramatic escape from Sykes's place, we had driven around aimlessly for a couple days. A wrong turn down a dirt path had lead to this farm. After a thorough scouting of the area, we laid claim to it. The house was just large enough for each couple to get their own room. As far as we knew, we were in the middle of bumfuck nowhere. But there was a working generator and a very limited supply of food.

Best of all? Next to no corpsers! We found a couple and easily dispatched them, but they were far apart and deep in the woods that surrounded the property. We figured that we stay until the generators ran out, and then move on. All day we took turns going out in foraging parties and grabbing whatever that might possibly be used. After an exhausting day of going through abandoned towns and little strip malls, we had found a lot of food and water. Even some medicine, including the strong antibacterial stuff.

I glanced at Tori's back to see nail shaped indentations in her back. Woops. She probably shouldn't be fantastic in bed and just overwhelmingly sexy. Her fault really. I grabbed the blankets and pulled them over us. Tori rolled into me and started to drift off. I stayed awake to keep an eye on her. She had been having more nightmares of late, and just holding onto her and watching her before I went to sleep seemed to help her a lot. (It also got her to stop thrashing around the bed, I'm still nursing some bruises on my ribs from her)

After some ten or so minutes, Tori fell asleep. I leaned back against the headrest and enjoyed the silence. I never realized how much I liked the silence. The absence of gunshots and the screams of the dying and the frightened. I guess I put so much emphasis on it now because I took it for granted for pretty much all of my life.

A knocking interrupted my thoughts, and Beck strode in. He saw me naked and apologized and quickly backed out of the room. I called him back in.

"It's nothing you haven't seen before Beck. Calm down."

"Yea you're right. So Robbie went through the gas and we've got enough for a few more hours. Grab your showers while you can. We'll be leaving soon. Want to get enough distance between us and Sykes."

I sighed. "All right. Beck? Eyes on my face."

Beck just shrugged and looked slightly embarrassed. I laughed, letting him off easily.

"We're we heading?" I asked.

"The coast, Trina found a radio that Robbie fixed and the emergency broadcast said they're still picking people up from the cities. San Fran is gone though, wiped off of the map. Military got to it." Beck said mournfully.

I tried not to let the despair get to me. Most military groups answered to whatever was left of the US government. Others became bandits or worse. Something Beck said clicked.

"We're heading for the ships?" I asked surprised.

"Can't think of a better place to go. And they said that a large number of LA people made it to the coast, so hopefully our parents might be there."

It was a long shot, but it was the only one we had. Beck and I talked for a bit more before Cat came by and all but dragged Beck away. She didn't look too pleased that I was naked and visible from the waist up, but whatever. I lay back down and snuggled into Tori. I would never admit it out loud, but I am a massive cuddling freak. There wasn't much I liked more then cuddling, save for maybe a full stomach and hot showers.

After several minutes of not being able to sleep, I eased out of Tori's arms and got dressed. I started wandering the house. It looked like your stereotyped farmhouse, with areas that clearly held family pictures, and spots that looked like it had held trophies or something along those lines. On the ground there was one picture. Grabbing it, I looked it over. It was a picture of a grey haired battle-axe of a woman, and old balding man. In front of them stood a woman, who was a brunette in a sunflower dress, with a man in the US marines uniform. The woman was in the Marine's arms and she was holding a baby.

Back in the old days, I had scoffed at the pictures. Laughed at them, dismissed them as sappy bullshit. But now, now I would give anything to see pictures like these all over the place. Because it meant that things were back too normal. That everyday would no longer be a battle to survive. That my biggest complaints would be dumbshits who didn't know how to drive, or morons who managed to fuck up my coffee order.

I walked into the living room knuckling out any and all tears. I wouldn't cry. I never cried. I didn't cry when my mother walked out on my life and didn't look back, I didn't cry when I got shot, I sure as hell wasn't about to cry now. I looked up to see headlights coming down the road towards the house. Fear slammed down into my heart.

"Wake up People! We've got company! Come on guys wake the fuck up!" I yelled as I tore through the house. I slammed on the walls and doors making as much noise as possible. Why the fuck wasn't anyone on watch?!

Whatever, it didn't matter now. Doors slammed open as the misfits grabbed weapons and took up positions all around the house. I slammed into the room that Tori and I shared, and I found her dressed with a rifle in her hands and Blanca loaded and waiting for me.

"Where'd you go?" Tori asked.

"Couldn't sleep, was walking around the house."

After what seemed like a nerve-racking eternity, the cars pulled up in front of the house. A steroidal thug got out of the passenger seat of the lead car. This fucker was huge! At least 250 plus and all muscle. (And bald, like light shined off of his head bald) At his hand gesture, spotlights shone from the side of the cars and onto the house.

"Hello there! My name is Jason Lodges. We only wish to talk to you charming misfits!"

His voice was deep, but it was authoritative. Someone who was used to leading others. Ex-military would be my best guess.

"Oh Yea?! Why do you want to talk?! Who are you working for?!" Beck yelled out.

I could see the shit-eating smirk on his face.

"I represent the Honorable Theresa Sykes."

**Cliffhangers, got to hate them right? **

**Review if you'd be so kind.**

**-C.H. **


	16. Aggressive Negotiation

I stilled at the name. Theresa Sykes. Theresa motherfucking Sykes. This steroidal behemoth was representing that bigoted bitch!

"How did you find us?" I shout.

Lodges laughed. "All we had to do was follow the trail of smashed up walkers. You guys are very thorough when you clear out an area." He said it with praise, as if we should be proud at how well we could deal with the dead.

I shrugged, hey in this world, might as well be proud of something right?

"What do you want?" Beck yelled down.

"As I said, I only want to talk. Inside preferably. All this shouting might attract a rather undesirable sort. You can keep your weapons and I will have my men wait outside. No violence. I promise."

"No violence unless you give us a reason!" I shout, and everyone else chimed in. Lodges shouted up his agreement. I heard Beck bark at Robbie to open the door and let Lodges in. Tori and I sprinted downstairs to the living room. In person Lodges looked even bigger.

Andre and Beck frisked him, and they both fell back, nodding that they hadn't found anything. We all stood/sat in a loose ring around the couch, watching him suspiciously.

It took a minute for Lodges to sit comfortably in the one seater, as his massive form could barely fit in it. He inhaled, seemed to think a minute and then started talking. His voice was authoritative, but jovial. As if he had just told a joke, and was inviting everyone to join in on it.

"Excluding your overtly dramatic escape, Miss Sykes would like to bring you all into the community. We live a good life there, even if you don't agree with the politics."

Politics. Right. Blaming everyone who isn't catholic or straight for the fall, and wanting to string them up and torture and kill them.

"Now, we can easily forgive you for the gate, it was repaired thirty minutes after your flight, so that's in the past. But you did stay at the community and offer nothing back."

"Offer nothing back? We traded with some of your people, and besides we were invited to stay free of charge." Beck shot.

Lodges pursed his lips; clearly he had underestimated us. There people went again, thinking that because we were teens or in our early twenties that we were stupid.

"Why did you all fly out like that? Clearly such a reaction was….over rated?"

"Ask Sykes. We didn't appreciate her speech. Besides, she doesn't shout trustworthy." Beck answered. We all voiced our agreements at that.

"I think you're overreacting a bit. Miss Sykes does get angry easily..but she does truly care about the community. You all would be welcome there." Lodges smiled at that. As if that made it better.

"No thanks. We have to find our families and being stuck in your community isn't helpful." Beck said.

"Do you speak for all of your group? The others haven't said a thing."

"We elected him the leader and it doesn't matter if he represents us or not, he's just saying what we all think." I snapped.

"Is there anyway I can convince you of the sincerity of what I'm saying?" Lodges asked, sounding somewhat mournful.

"You could leave." I said immediately.

The misfits snickered and Lodges didn't look too appreciative over the comment. Lodges sighed and then said, "Look we need you to come back the community because you know where it is, and we can't risk you bringing back some undesirables back with you. You understand."

"Well we wont so don't worry about it." Trina snapped.

"But we don't know that. Things change very easily, especially now." Lodges sounded mournful about this. Seriously, this guy should have been an actor, I mean he keeps changing his tone and actually sounds like he means whatever it is that he's saying.

"Tough shit. We wont lead anyone to your people. Besides, aren't you putting them in danger being out here instead of staying to protect them?" I said.

Lodges laughed and said "Not at all. There is plenty of protection in the community."

That wasn't all that good. Meant that Sykes could harass us for a long time then.

"Look, thanks for the offer but no thanks. We aren't interested in joining your community and we promise not to lead anyone back to the community." Beck said, sounding about as sorry as I did when I pushed Trina into a pool.

Lodges pursed his lips. "Are you sure? This is your last chance. You can still head out and find your families if you stay in the community. It'll be a lot safer for you as well."

"We all ready said no thanks. And I think we would like you and your men to leave now Mr. Lodges." Tori said.

Lodges held out his hand and we all shook it. We thanked him for coming all of this way to talk to us, and wished him the best of luck with his life. It was surreal, the way we were all polite about it. We all knew what was coming next. Lodges had barely left the house when Robbie slammed the door and everyone turned the safety off of their weapons.

Eternity seem to pass before the first gunshot screamed out. One of the windows in the living room shattered. Jane had somehow found an old hunting rifle had given it to me. It was a bolt action one, one that looked like you would see in a world war one movie. I waited until the stream of bullets had stopped before I poked my head out and pulled the trigger. A stream of bullets forced me to duck my head back down or risk getting it ventilated.

Everyone else was firing right now, and the racket was unbelievable. Jane landed right next to me, and we waited until the firing slackened before firing back. The plaster and wood from inside the house was raining down, and it was chaos.

Jane fired a couple times, and gave a fierce war scream.

"Got one son of a bitch!"

I howled in victory and I think I heard the others shouting in joy or something. One shout turned into a shriek.

"Trina's hit!" Tori screamed.

"Jane go! I got you covered!" I shouted. Jane had proven to be a handy replacement for Doc Cottle. Not as good as him, but getting there. Jane took off, and I glanced out the window and saw someone poking his head out, and I didn't even aim, I just pulled the trigger. His head snapped back and he collapsed.

There were at least fifteen of them, including Lodges, who I couldn't see. "Who's watching the back?!" I shouted.

"Andre is!" Beck answered from the other side of the living room. He gave a loud whoop. "Got one!" That makes three down. If we kill a few more people, they should retreat right?

Only one way to find out.

One guy started sprinting forward, towards the house. Beck and I dropped him. Andre gave a wordless shout. I turned around expecting some of them to be charging forward.

"Go Jade! I got this!" Beck shouted.

Hunched over like Felix told us, I dodged and weaved down the hall before sliding right up to the island counter. Andre was shooting at someone. "They tried to come around! Got one guy in leg!"

"Good!"

I worked the bolt and fired. I didn't even think, I just opened fire and worked the bolt. Completely on automatic. After what seemed forever, the group in the back started to retreat. I traced one guy with my rifle, and I waited until the right moment to pull the trigger. He fell bonelessly against the ground.

"They're leaving we won!" Robbie shouted. We cheered, having beaten them off.

From outside, the sounds of doors slamming and cars speeding away was heard. Andre and I high fived each other, only for our faces to turn to shock.

"TRINA!" We both shouted and sprinted up stairs. Tori hovered over Jane and Trina in the room. Jane was cleaning up the blood around the wound. It was a deep cut on Trina's side. It required stiches but that was about it.

Jane smiled. "No worries, the narcissist will make it."

Trina protested that she was a narcissist, and insisted she was just awesome. We laughed and ignored her.

"We…Really killed people didn't we?" Tori asked.

Her mournful tone shot down any celebratory feeling.

"We were protecting ourselves, they shouldn't have shot at us." Cat said.

"Couldn't have put it better myself." Jane said. "Look Tori, in this world, we're going to have to kill. There's no way around it. Killing is what humans do best."

"Not true, we also love pretty well." Tori said looking at me. Everyone awed and I immediately moved to end the sappy moment.

"Yea you love pretty well there Tori."

It took her a second, but Tori caught on and burned bright red. "You had to ruin that moment didn't you?" she snapped.

"Yea"

Tori fumed but didn't say anything else. Everyone started laughing, it was great, breaking the tension after a massive gunfight.

Beck stopped laughing and had us head outside to gather what we could and get ready to leave. We may have won the gunfight, but the noise would have attracted corpsers. Walking outside, I counted at least six people. Jane and I looked at each other, shrugged and went to work policing anything even remotely useful off of them. The iron smell of spilt blood combined with the piss and shit of the bowels loosing after death created a god-awful smell.

Robbie tried, but after a bit he gave up and went to the side of the house. Vomiting noises could clearly be heard.

"How do you go through this so easily?" Jane asked.

I shrugged. "Not big on empathy to begin with, so I guess it's easy for me to see them as nothing but targets. Not people."

"Same here. Think the others will get used to it?"

I sighed. "They might. One day. I know Tori wont. She's always been to damn empathetic."

"And that's what you love about her so don't try and deny it."

I didn't respond, just went back to stripping the corpsers of whatever could be useful. After what seemed like forever we went back inside the house, Robbie looked worse for the wear and was hovering near the rest of the group.

"Got guns and ammo and some clothes free of blood." I announced.

Beck didn't look too pleased, but nodded. We combed through the house and again and stripped it the little that was left. We loaded up the cars, some which sported new bullet holes and started driving again.

"You killed them." Tori said. It wasn't accusatory, it was mournful. Depressing.

I nodded. "I did. Just like I killed that skull douchebag on the highway, just like I killed Mike."

"How? How can you kill so easily?"

"They're targets. Not people. Just some pain shooting at me. Someone tries to kill you, you kill them first. It's the way things work."

Tori looked at me, and sat on the other side of the car. We didn't cuddle. I felt the loss, and I knew the way the others would look at me. But they had killed, and they seemed somewhat mournful about it. Save for Jane. Jane knew how I thought.

But I knew; I knew that when I closed my eyes, I would see their faces. Those men I had killed. I would see their faces over and over. I wouldn't be able to sleep. I mourned having to kill, but I wasn't going to get hung up about it. If we were attacked again, I would defend myself.

I had closed my eyes, and one of the faces of the men I had shot floated up behind me eyes. The nightmares had begun.

So be it. If I have to suffer through nightmares to keep my family safe, then I would.

After some time, my nightmares woke me up. I felt tied down, so I started to thrash about, trying to get away. I opened my eyes and forced my heart rate to calm down. I was in Tori's arms. She stared at me, her eyes not revealing anything.

"_Thought you were still mad at me for killing those people." _I said in Spanish.

"_I…am. But you're right. We have to protect ourselves, no matter what. I just wont ever get used to having to kill anyone."_

"_Good."_

I leaned back into Tori's arms and looked at Cat who was driving. No one but me knew that she spoke Spanish. She nodded her head. She agreed with both of us. We would have to defend ourselves no matter what. We would probably end up having to kill again. I looked out the window at the noonday sun.

In the field, a corpser shambled past.

**Hope you all enjoyed. **

**-C.H. **


	17. Heart shattering decision

The truck bounced and I slammed my head into the ceiling. "Cat!" I shouted.

"Sorry!" She whined back to me.

I growled but didn't say anything else.

The trucked bounced again, but this time I was ready and had buckled my seat belt. After our fight with Lodges and his men, we had hit road, again. Unfortunately for us, the major roads were clogged with abandoned cars and whatever else. (I shit you not that there was a broken and shattered 747 strewn across the high way)

And for that reason, we had decided to take the back roads. Roads that hadn't seen maintenance since the Korean War. Not a single one of us had a fucking clue as to where we were. Our only concern was to lose Sykes. And so far, we seemed like we were doing a marvelous job. In fact, did it so fucking well we managed to get ourselves lost as well.

"Maybe we should have taken a different way" Tori said, bouncing right next to me.

"_Maybe we should have taken a different way" _I mocked. "You think?!"

"I don't sound like that Jade! You know that!"

"You sure? Because I'm pretty sure it sounds like you."

"No it doesn't! Does it Cat?"

"I think I see a way back to the suburbs over here. Should I take it?" Cat said, completely ignoring Tori.

"Yea, whatever gets us out of..Wherever we are." Beck said.

"I think you two are ignoring my girlfriend." I said in a silky voice.

Cat flinched, and Beck who knew me very well didn't react as obviously. I could tell by the way that he shifted that he was worried. I unbuckled my seatbelt and leaned forward. I grinned at them.

I let them stew in their fear for a bit before I leaned back and laughed.

Beck gave this little chiding look while Cat and Tori laughed.

Pretty soon we were all laughing, though me as usual not so much.

Cat was proven correct when we managed to get back on to the remnants of civilization. Though it did take a couple hours. We had to stop and refuel the vehicles. While Andre and Beck worked with the truck, I helped Trina with the car. The others stood guard.

We took the time to stretch our legs were reluctant to head back to the cars. It seemed we lived in the fucking things.

"So where do you kids think we should go?" Beck asked, and we all gratefully crowded around him. Any reason not to sit in the damn cars seemed like a good reason to me.

"Coast?" I ventured.

"Still set on the coast?" Jane asked.

"Obviously."

Jane's mouth twitched a little at my sarcasm. You'd think she was used to it by now.

"I think we should go to the coast. Might find some people to get us off of this damn continent." Trina said.

"It hasn't been a year yet and all ready almost of the supplies in the area are gone. We've been to Nevada and California and everything we've found is right here in these cars." Robbie said.

"Rest of it is been destroyed or in the hands of the bad people." Cat said.

Her childlike persona occasionally grated on me, but I knew I would miss it if it ever disappeared. It was largely of what made Cat, well Cat. And she had a damn good point. People were snapping everything around us up. And there wasn't any guarantee that they would be willing to trade with us. Others would kill us at the drop of a hat. Granted, not every one of them would be like, but would you be willing to take that risk?

"What about your families? Is there anyway we could increase the search for them?" I asked bluntly.

"We can try. But…" Beck trailed off. Everyone shuffled around, not really comfortable. The despair was practically oppressive.

So many months. Months we should have been looking for them, but couldn't. Could only focus on ourselves. Every time we settled down, some clusterfuck would happen and we would be forced to move on. Back at Eden…. if I had to guess we were too caught up in the fact that I didn't die and finding the Vega's mother. Not to mention all of the neat little things such as a hot shower, warm beds and everything else to actually go out and do a thorough search. Not to mention that back there we ran into the serious risk of running into the skull kickers.

We argued back and forth for a while, but deep down we all knew that we were heading for the coast. Hopefully the ships were still picking up people. If not…well..we'll improvise. But one thing was certain. We weren't going to a block-by-block search for the adults. We couldn't risk it.

Now…Now in order to keep ourselves alive, especially with that Sykes bitch no doubt burning for revenge, we would have to search as we traveled. That was it. Looking at all of them, I could see the tears forming in their eyes. Beck, Andre, and Robbie looked almost completely broken. Cat and the Vega's had lost their families. I didn't give a damn about my father, and I knew for a fact that he never once cared about me.

Jane seemed only concerned about Andre. I raised an eyebrow at her, and she mimed hanging herself behind Andre. I nodded. So her parent(s) had committed suicide. Explained why she didn't have anything to say about the parental search.

"So meeting adjourned then? I think we should relax in this lovely little area before moving on." I said with a massively fake jovial tone. Everyone turned and stared at me.

"I said meeting adjourned then." I snarled. Everyone jumped and scattered. I snagged Beck, who turned and dragged Cat with him. Cat didn't look like she was about to leave so I just ignored her.

"We can look for your parents you know. Like do an actual search." I said. Tori chimed in from behind me. When the hell did she join this conversation? Whatever.

"We can't. It would put all of you in danger." Beck said firmly.

"It's your fucking parents!" I didn't shout, and I was proud of myself for that.

"We know! But Andre Robbie and I all talked about this all ready. We can't risk losing you guys!" Beck wasn't shouting either but he did look exasperated and tired. I opened my mouth to make a rebuttal but Beck over rode me.

"We can't lose you guys. I can't…We're all that we have left in this world. Can't risk that for a wild goose chase. Yea we've survived everything up till know, but who knows how long that's going to last? I want to find my parents, I really do..but after everything we've heard? I'm not risking all of you, and neither is Andre or Robbie. That's the way it is. End of discussion." Beck was mournful, but he sounded firm.

I knew that no matter what I said or did would change his mind. It was horrible. The worse decision any child could make. But deep down I knew he was right. We probably would never find their parents; and we would only risk our lives in doing a massive search for them. Yes I know, I had made earlier comments about that, but I had thought that we would be searching as we traveled. I was wrong.

They were giving up the search.

Beck seemed to fold up, and Cat supported him. I moved in and Tori followed. No one said anything; we just sat on the ground around him. The rest of the misfits joined in. No one said anything. We just sat there.

Soon, the three people whose families might still be out there, who had chosen us over them broke down crying. They wept, completely unashamed. We held them close. Earlier, I had declared to myself that they were my family. I never had considered how much we truly had meant to each other. As I looked around at our little gang, I realized that we truly supported each other. If we lose anyone.

We all would die.

**That has been the worse case of writer's block I have ever had. It was horrible. **

**-C.H. **


	18. Surprises and laughs

We all stared at the wreckage. Once again our path was blocked by a plane. And once again, it was a goddamn 747 or something like it. A huge fucking plane.

"I thought shit like this only happened the movies!" I snapped.

"Zombies were supposed to only be in the movies too." Jane responded.

I growled but she had a point. How many fucking planes went down since this shit happened? I mean honestly what the fuck?!

"At least this one is only in two pieces instead of all over the place." Cat said.

We all turned to look at her in confusion. Why exactly did it matter how many pieces the fucking plane was in? Cat looked at us in equal confusion.

"We can just drive through the two pieces, and it looks like the plane pushed all of the cars out of the way so we don't have to worry about them either." She said bluntly.

We all looked at each other, and then looked away. There was some embarrassed shuffling and light coughs as we tried to over come the fact that we all (except Cat of course) had missed something so freakishly obvious.

"Soo… we should fan out and search the cars for anything useful." Beck said.

We all almost literally jumped at the chance to cover up our embarrassment. Tori went off with her sister and Robbie, and the rest of us moved along the abandoned cars. I stopped at one car and tapped the side of it. The disgusting and partially decomposed corpse inside of it didn't move. I tapped louder. It twitched. Or maybe it didn't. I couldn't tell so I took the logical path. I slammed a knife into its skull.

That took care of anything and everything. I yanked the door open after doing a check of the rest of the car. Rifling through the car I didn't find anything interesting. Except to discover that one of the previous occupants was monstrously fat woman. I picked up the massively wide woman's underwear and looked at it in disgust before flinging it off into the wreckage of the other cars.

"Find anything?" Jane called.

"No. You?" I answered.

"Nothing. Some knives and various other small stuff but nothing worth noting."

I punched the side of the car, and Jane wore a grim look on her face. Her grim look changed to a look of surprise then disgust, and she took off to the side of the road. Vomiting noises were heard. I followed but kept my distance, primarily because I had no interest in joining her throwing up what little food we had.

When she finished I handed her the mouth wash bottle I found. Don't know how old it was, but better then nothing right?

"So stomach bug or something else?" I asked bluntly.

"Uhh bug?" She said and gave a smile that I guess was supposed to be innocent.

"Uhuh. And this bug, would it happen to last for about nine months?"

"What?! No!"

"This isn't the fist time you've been throwing up. The other misfits are blinder then bats but I'm not."

"Oh really Jade? Then explain why it took you more then half a year to figure out Tori was in love with you?"

My usual smirk was obliterated in an instant. It still was a sore spot with me that I had taken for freaking ever to realize Tori's feelings. I growled and stepped forward. Jane hesitated and stepped forward herself.

"What are you going to do to a pregnant woman Jade?"

My smirk came roaring back, and far too late did Jane realize her blunder. She swore and stepped back and put her hands over her face. I looked at her, and I realized that there were tears slowly leaking down the side of her face.

"Thought you'd be happy with Andre." I said quietly, and kindly.

"I am! I am! But how can I bring a child into a world like this? Especially after what happened to Terry?" She wailed.

I put my hands on her shoulders. "Look at me. You'll raise this new kid of yours, and he or she will reach old age and annoy the fuck out of you and Andre. Doesn't matter what world we're in. We'll be watching out for each other. Got it?"

Jane nodded and she seemed to gather herself.

"How do you know that you're pregnant anyways? You really could just have eaten something. God knows we're not exactly eating from the entire damn food pyramid." I asked.

"Been a month since my last period. And I stole a pregnancy test from Trina. It confirmed everything. "

"When are you going to tell him?"

"Soon. Yea, as soon as we have a stable area for a few hours."

We both heard a high-pitched whistle. We both gave dramatic sighs. "Back to the wagon train then." I said with annoyance.

We both ambled back to the cars, and found out that collectively everyone found various and random objects including weapons that would no doubt come in handy later. One of those trucks with the water galleon things had gone off the road; so we got a ton of water to drink and even better, wash with. So we gained something at least. Andre started moving towards the passenger seat, but Beck steered him around to the drivers seat.

"You lost the bet, you get to drive." Beck teased.

Andre grumbled. "Seriously Tori, you couldn't keep Jade out of your pants for at least a week?"

"No." Tori answered immediately and without hesitation.

"Right answer there." I said as I kissed the top of her head.

Tori beamed and climbed into the smaller car and I followed. Andre and Jane climbed up front into the pick up truck, with Andre grumbling good naturally while Cat and Beck climbed into the back. Trina and Robbie climbed into the drivers and passengers seat respectively.

"So where are we going?" Tori asked.

"West. Somehow we'll reach the damn coast. And find a ship." Trina said.

"Does anyone know anything about sailing?" I demanded.

"A little. My dad took me sailing when I was younger." Robbie said.

"Better then nothing I guess." Trina said as she ruffled his hair.

"How the hell did you two end up together?" I asked.

"Yea I was wondering that myself." Tori said, joining in.

Robbie and Trina looked at each other and shrugged. "Obviously Robbie has liked me for forever, and who wouldn't?" Tori and I rolled our eyes at that.

"But.." Trina said as she continued… "Oh damn it all I don't know. It just happened."

"Got anything to say Robbie?" Tori asked.

"Uhhhh No. Or maybe I do actually?"

"Better not be insulting otherwise you're not getting laid." Trina threatened.

"Never mind. I have nothing to say. Nothing at all. Just glad I can date the girl of my dreams. That's it. Yep."

"That's better."

We all laughed. "I'll take the next driving shift." I said.

Robbie agreed and he followed the pick up truck in between the two remains of the plane. The way the metal was warped meant that a massive fire had torn through it. I loved it. The weird design was amazing. I wish I had a camera. The metal was bent and warped at odd angles, making the inside of half of the plane look like a desiccated and broken flower.

Speaking of weird. I wonder why this never occurred to me before. I grabbed the walkie-talkie and asked the question that I probably should have asked months ago.

"Does anyone know what happened to Sinjin?"

"Uhhhh No?" Beck's incredibly guilty voice said. Everyone else except Jane (who obviously didn't know who we were talking about) chimed in that they had no idea about what happened to Sinjin. "We should probably feel guilty about that shouldn't we?" I said.

"Yea we probably should." Beck said.

"Well now that's been brought up, anyone else got something they want to say? Since we're all now feeling guilty might as well get everything else off of our chest." Beck said with a guilty jovial tone.

"I'm pregnant." Jane cut in.

The response to that was immediate. Andre panicked and swerved the pick up truck and almost hit at least a half dozen abandoned cars before regaining control.

I grabbed the walkie again and spoke "Thought you were going to wait for a stable and set area. Pick up trucks aren't that stable especially with Andre driving."

"You knew Jade?!" Andre yelled.

"Yes, because I have eyes. So untwist your panties and tend to your pregnant girlfriend."

Before anyone else could say anything Cat barged in and said "Congratulation's you two! It certainly took you long enough. I mean you were going at it a lot."

Silence issued from the walkie talkie as the rest of us in the smaller car roared with laughter at the no doubt embarrassed faces that Andre and Jane must be wearing.

"This…wasn't…planned Cat." Jane mumbled.

"Really? Sure seemed like it. I mean all the time"

"CAT!" Jane yelled.

"You don't need to yell at me!"

"I do when you're embarrassing the hell out of my boyfriend."

Andre grumbled something that wasn't really clear. I turned up the volume on the walkie so that all of us could hear more.

"Now you know how Beck and I felt when you barged in on us when we stopped at that gas station a few hours ago." Cat said coolly.

"New rule Cat, you're not allowed to hang out with Jade anymore." Andre said.

"Second that." Jane said.

"Hey at least she didn't punch you in the face." I said, breaking into the conversation.

"Wait Cat punched someone? Who the hell did she punch? Must have been a total bitch." Jane said.

"HEY! I'm not a total bitch! I just made a mistake!" Tori yelled.

"Well that answers that question." Jane said.

"Yea, it was a great moment watching Tori explain why she had a bandage over her nose." I said with a smile on my face.

"You're so not getting into my pants." Tori snapped.

"OH so now you keep her out your pants?! Thanks so much Tori! I've been doing all the driving for the past week and I still have a week to go!" Andre said.

"Jade wasn't being mean then."

"I'm always mean."

"Well, yea, but you weren't as mean."

"Hmm true."

"Who's been pushing the buttons and making sure we here your conversation?" I asked.

"Beck. Who else chica?" Andre said.

"Thanks Beck!" Robbie Trina Tori and I all called out.

"Anytime. Now lets hit the coast and find a place to stay so we can work out what to do for the newly made parents. Aren't they just the cutest?"

"SHUT UP BECK!" Andre and Jane roared.

Every misfit laughed, and the terrors and frustrations and the sadness from yesterday faded away to nothingness. From the laughs, it seemed like we were ready to face whatever might come next.

_Thought a lighter chapter was needed. So Jane's pregnant. What will happen next? Find out on another exciting episode of Drag- wait wrong show. Woops. _

_Lets just move on. Hope you all enjoyed, feedback is always appreciated._

_-C.H._


	19. Trade?

"A full sized trailer. You have a diesel truck so it won't mess with the gas mileage" Sam said.

"What's the catch?" I demanded.

"Catch?" Sam said smoothly

Real smoothly. I can see why people call him Smooth-faced Sam. Standing above me at about 6'5, Sam had had cream smooth skin and a smooth baby face that could easily let him lie about five years off of his age. He had a smooth lawyers voice. It grabbed your attention and kept it.

The fall had brought him from being some big time lawyer in Seattle to a trader stuck with some convoy in California. How the mighty have fallen. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Andre and Jane haggling with some whip thin woman over baby supplies. It had been a couple days since her blunt revelation, and after some serious shock; Andre took to being a father like a duck to water. He still had moments of panic at the thought of being a father, but Jane usually calmed him down.

I turned my attention back to Sam. "Yea. This is a full sized trailer attachment with all the attachments. You should be ready to kill to keep this thing."

Sam never lost that smile of his, but his eyes narrowed a bit. I think he expected me to jump at the sight of it and just move on.

"No catch. I swear on my degree from Duke. It's…just a little pricy."

"If you expect me to whore myself out…" I growled.

"WHAT?! NO!" Sam took a deep breath and lowered his voice. "I happen to love my wife thank you."

"You're scared of her aren't you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about. Now. I want…" Whatever he wanted was lost as the tire fell off of the trailer. We both watched it bounce and roll away. I looked back at Sam. Sam tried to smile again, but this time it was clearly forced.

"No deal." I snapped and walked away. Behind me, Sam swore and angrily kicked the trailer, and then swore even louder when he clearly hurt his foot. I laughed to myself and I wandered around parking lot where the convoy had set up. We had bumped into this convoy while making our way to some port city. We had decided to stay with them for a bit and trade whatever we could. With an economy clearly extinct, everything worked on a bartering system.

I nodded when I saw Cat and Robbie talking with a woman who had a gaggle of kids behind her.

I laughed to myself. Cat has loved kids for as long as I could remember. Nothing made her happier then to see kids being happy. I gave a halfhearted wave before continuing on. The Vega's and Beck were trading with some people for food and other supplies.

Tori detached herself from the other two and walked over to me.

"Find anything?" She asked, latching onto my arm.

"Trailer RV thing that could have made traveling a hell of a lot easier if it fuckin worked." I ground out.

"What was wrong with it?"

"One tire came off, god knows what the others would do."

"Aw. Coulda used the room."

"Tell me about it."

"Where to know jadeykins?"

"Don't call me that. And I don't know, a bar maybe, we could use some fresh info."

With that, I made up my mind and started marching towards the bus that somehow manages to double as a bar. Trading in some gloves and a scarf, I got my hands on some Smirnoff. Tori traded her objects and took some rum. Before you flip out, yes Tori does drink. She doesn't go out of her way to drink and was extremely aware of her limits.

"What's new around the coast?" I asked the bartender, a thin balding man with ample flesh, suggesting that he lost a ton of weight pretty damn fast.

"Shit sucks. Same as has been for almost a year." He grumbled.

"Yea no shit. What else is new?" I demanded.

"Info is going to cost ya" He said and leered at Tori and I.

I grabbed a kbar knife that I kept strapped to my hip and absentmindedly twirled it before using it to clean my fingernails. "How much would this info cost?" I said, making sure the knife stayed right where he could see it. The bartender visibly paled and seemed to be reconsidering his stance.

"Well….i mean…it could cost.."

I pointed the knife at him, cutting him off. (Not literally) "Come on man, we haven't got all damn day" I snapped.

"All right All right!" He said, clearly on the verge of panicking. I put the knife away, just so he could ease off and not have a full-blown heart attack.

Mr. Chickenshit started filling us in. People were fleeing north. Those that couldn't travel built forts and try and ride out the storm. Some new cults were being created. Some that made Sykes look like a fucking kindergarten teacher. More people were turning to banditry as a means to survive. Scavengers like the Hollywood Misfits were being pushed off of the fucking grid. The number of corpsers was increasing every day. But get this! San Francisco was still holding out! Well sort of. Most of the city was gone, but Alcatraz was still a going concert and best of all, the navy was doing pick ups and getting people off the continent!

Tori and I were ecstatic over that. We grabbed our new alcohol and tore off in search of the others. Along the way we asked the other caravan members who confirmed what the bartender had said. It was easy rounding up everyone else and filling them on what we had heard. Immediately after hearing about San Fran, Beck ordered all of us to fan out and grab as many supplies and info as we could.

A couple hours we came back together and compiled everything that we had just learned. We were at most just over five hours from San Francisco; which was due west of us. Well, five hours if the roads still worked and weren't covered with abandoned cars and walking corpses. The military was still evacuating people, but the number of people that could make it there was decreasing every day. Pretty soon the military was going to pack it up and leave. We had to get to Alcatraz now.

The even worse news was that Sykes had been whipped up into a frenzy. Some people, (no one knows who of course) had killed a few of her soldiers and she had taken that as a person insult. She of course wanted revenge.

We decided for obvious reasons to get the hell out of here. We thanked the caravan leaders for letting us trade with them, and wished them the best of luck and all of that polite bullshit. Nice to know that with the world having gone to shit people can and still would be polite about everything. (They actually get offended if you're rude these days)

Moving on we piled into the cars and took off. It was about midday, and we hoped that we could make some distance. Robbie became the man of the hour when he revealed that he had managed to get his hands on a working radio! He was immediately exempt from driving and was ordered to spend every waking minute keeping it working and get in contact with anyone.

We drove away in high spirits. Found more supplies, got rid of a lot of useless shit, and figured out where to go in order to escape this hellhole. If I had to guess, we thought that nothing else was going to happen. We really should have known better. We really should have.

We took to the back roads, doing our best to avoid the suburbs. God knows what's in there. Maybe that's what put our lives in danger, maybe it saved our lives. I don't think any of us will ever know.

Regardless, we soon found ourselves in a shitload of trouble. I was driving the pick up truck when a burning car was pushed right into the middle of the road. We were lucky that they pushed to early and I was able to slam on the brakes.

"It's a trap!" Trina shouted.

"No shit Admiral!" I yelled back. I grabbed my rifle and jumped out of the truck. Just in time for bullets started hitting just where I had been sitting. The area was desert and from behind a bunch of rocks came these guys. They were shooting at us from I shit you not some revolutionary war type rifle (I had no idea that people still made let alone used those) to fully automatics. Another bonus was that they couldn't aim for shit. They were doing the whole spray and pray thing.

We on the other hand, knew exactly what to do and how to do it. Taking aim, we fired back. I got one stupid guy who was standing straight up on top of a rock. Even with their bad aim, you put enough rounds in the air and some are bound to hit. I swore when a round cut my arm. I didn't have time to glance at it.

"Run! Get back! Forget the cars!" Beck yelled through the racket. Easier said then done man. Gradually we started to fall back. Shooting at anything and everything. Then Andre yelled something that chilled me to the bone.

"WALKERS!"

I followed where he was pointing, and sure enough shambling towards us was a wall of the living dead. They passed around the car, or bumped into it and managed to set parts if not all of them on fire. It was frightening at how fast they managed to move towards the sounds of gunfire. We couldn't have been fighting that long could we?

Almost as one we all turned and opened fire on the corpsers. Some of our ambushers turned and attacked the dead as well. Others however wouldn't stop shooting at us. When a bullet clanged off the side of the car, missing my face by at most an inch, I swung to the left and shot at the bastard. A red misty cloud blossomed from behind his head and he dropped.

"RPG!" Jane screamed. I turned and saw the guy standing up with it. Just as I looked at him, he pulled the trigger, and the rocket screamed forward. I turned to run and the rocket hit the ground and exploded in front of the truck.

The explosion seemed immense to me, and I was flung forward from the blast. The truck flipped over and slammed into the ground. Gas from the engine and from the containers was leaking all over. I rolled around, my ears ringing. I was so confused and dazed. Cat appeared over me, shaking me and yelling at me. After what seemed like an eternity; sound came roaring back and I heard what Cat was yelling.

"We have to go! Now!"

"Okay okay! I yelled back.

I got to my feet, and looked around. The ambushers were rushing towards us, clearly excited. They paused to shoot the few remaining corpsers, but that barely slowed them down. My eyes fell on Tori's prone form a couple feet away from me.

No.

Please God no.

Jesus fucking Christ please god no not Tori!

I shoved Cat out of the way and ran to Tori and pulled her up onto that fireman's carry on my shoulders. She was so limp… The rest of the misfits shot at the ambushers or the corpsers. We all started to run away. I ran, not even bothering to turn around.

Parting shots came after us, but they were only meant to chase us away. But karma's a fucking bitch. The fire reached the spilled gas and it went up with a solid _whuuump!_

The ambusher's cheers at winning immediately turned into screams of agony as the caught on fire. I relished their pain. Their agony. Fucking served them right.

After some distance we all stopped to collect our breath and nurse our wounds. I put Tori down and leaned her against a rock. Jane shuffled amongst us, doing a check over. I ignored her and focused all my attention on Tori.

"Tori..Tori..come on girl talk to me." I said. Panic started to fill my voice. I shook her shoulders. She didn't respond. Her head rolled forward and hung there limply.

No. For fucks sake please no.

"Tori! Tori baby please say something!" The others started to come close fear and worry on their faces. Tori didn't change at all. Her breath felt shallow if that.

"TORI VEGA YOU STUPID BITCH YOU CAN'T FUCKING DIE I LOVE YOU!" I screamed at her. Maybe it was because it was loud, maybe it was the fact that I announced that I loved her. I don't know. I don't care. Tori stirred and mumbled under her breath

"Cat don't let Jade put ice in my pants again."

I couldn't even speak; I just gave a choked laugh/sob and pulled Tori into a tight hug.

"huah? Whazza? My head hurts."

"You're concussed. You were pretty close to the explosion. Let me finish stitching everyone up and I'll take a look at you. You should be fine though." Jane said.

Tori hugged me and said "Jade you're bleeding!"

"Shut up and just hold me you stupid girl. And don't you ever fucking scare me like that again." I snapped.

"Um..Sure..okay" Tori held me close as I fought to keep any tears from falling down my face.

Jane walked through, stitching everyone up. I had her check up on Tori first, and she did this whole light shine on the eyeballs thing and checked her over. "Definitely concussed. I wouldn't recommend any serious movement for a bit. Here, have some pills."

While Tori took them, I tried to edge away from Jane, but I wasn't fast enough. Andre and Beck jumped in and held me down. Jane immediately set to sewing up the cuts on my arms. I hate needles and I especially hate getting stiches. I called Beck and Andre every name that I could think of including some new ones. When Jane finished, she smiled and walked away as fast as she could, while Beck and Andre jumped away.

I growled at all three of them but didn't say or do anything else.

"Come on kids, we have to head back and see what we can grab. Those bastards should be gone by now. We better salvage what we can. We'll find a place to stay tonight..somewhere." Beck said.

Groaning, we got up. Tori wobbled so I immediately put her on my back. Tori gave a wane smile and gratefully rested her head on my shoulder. "If I had known that you would be willing to give me a piggy back ride, I would have gotten hurt sooner"

I just snarled at her. "I'm kidding!" She said quickly.

We all started marching down the road, with Tori, Jane and I in the center. We marched as slowly as possible, with guns pointed in every direction. Didn't want to walk into another ambush.

"Hey wait a second did you call me a bitch?" Tori demanded.

"…..maybe."

_Pretty long update. Hope you all enjoyed._

_-C.H._


	20. Introducing

Tori rolled her head on my shoulder. "How you feeling?" I asked.

"I've been better. Huh.."

"What?"

"You're actually caring about me. Now I really believe the world has ended."

I let go and Tori dropped with a shriek. I grabbed her before she got far and pulled her back onto my back. Tori huffed and glared at me. I returned her glare tenfold. She quailed and settled for wrapping her arms around my collar. Everyone laughed.

The rest of the group kept their guns up, constantly scanning for fresh targets or would be ambushers. The smell of burning flesh and burning rubber filled our noses. It made for a disgusting smell, all of us gagged and fought to keep the bile down.

"Looks clear." Beck said.

"Truck's gone." Cat whimpered.

That was a goddamn understatement. The pick up truck was a blazing inferno. The heat was too great. We couldn't get close to it. A few yards back and the heat was blistering. I could feel Tori starting to break out in a sweat.

"Check the other car." Beck ordered. The small car was totaled as well. Bullet holes ripped through every part of it. Including the engine. Andre and Robbie pulled up the hood; they glanced at the engine and then dropped the hood and walked away.

"Riddled" was all Andre said.

I placed Tori with Jane and went to check out the car. I opened the back left passenger door and it fell off and missed my foot by an inch. I pulled out the blankets and pillows and looked through them. They were mostly good, even with a few holes in them they could still work.

I started rifling through the stuff, but most of it was riddled with bullets. I grabbed anything that I thought could still be useful. Cat and Beck were pulling stuff out of the trunk, but it was mostly being tossed to the side. After an hour or so, we all called it quits and pooled what we found together. Including the vehicles, we had lost more then sixty percent of all of our stuff. Despair, rage and a host of other emotions danced across everyone's faces. I glanced at the sun and saw that it was starting to get low. We had at most a couple hours before dark.

"Guys." I said, and gestured towards the sun. Everyone looked, balked and immediately fanned out. They stripped the corpses of the ambushers and corpsers of anything useful. They didn't like it. Probably thought it was disrespecting the dead. I didn't care. They're dead. They have no opinion of what we do.

After stuffing everything into backpacks, I pulled Tori onto my back again and we started walking towards San Francisco. We walked for what seemed like forever, with the sun setting lower and lower. Ever since most forms electricity was long gone, we had started acting like our ancestors and rising with the sun around dawn, and retreating and going to sleep when night hit. (Well, when we could afford to set a schedule. Most of the time it was sleep when you can.)

Night without any easy call lights on hand was asking to get killed. Humans living and dead would figuratively and literally tear us to pieces.

"Y'all look like shit." A voice called out.

We immediately spun into defensive circle with weapons pointing outwards. Tori and I were in the center, and I quickly put Tori on the ground before grabbing my pistol. Tori grabbed hers and pointed out as well.

"Fast reactions y'all got there. Impressive. If I step out peaceably will you please put your weapons down?"

"No. But I can promise we wont shoot unless you give us a reason to." Beck said.

"That's reasonable."

The ground shifted and blanket lifted and I man in desert camo stood up. The blanket fell off of him and with it a cloud of dust billowed everywhere. He had been right next to the road and us. Scary.

"Y'all don't look homicidal so you're welcome to stay with my group. And before you ask, you can trust us because if we wanted to kill you, we would have dropped your Asses more then half a mile ago."

I blinked, and looked at the man, and he stood about 5'9, with a thin wiry frame. He had short-cropped black hair with these brown eyes that seemed to be measuring us. Hunting eyes. Everything is a target to him.

"Who are you?" Beck demanded.

"Jackson De'Jesus. Lance Corporal, USMC. Well, former lance corporal, seeing as I have no officers that I know of to answer to."

"Why are you offering us a place to stay?" Tori asked.

"Because the world's gone to shit and I'm determined to stay the nice guy. I'm stupid like that."

Tori clearly didn't know how to respond to that.

We all looked at Beck. He looked back at us. "Not much choice." I said. Beck nodded. The others looked dubious, but they gave hesitant nods and voiced their agreements.

"Lead the way Mr. De'Jesus." Beck said.

We all cradled our weapons, and Tori took to walking. She was walking in a straight line and seemed perfectly healthy, save for the cuts on her forehead. We followed behind, each cradling a rifle. De'Jesus didn't say anything about that. He waved his hand up and eight other people stood up from the ground, perfectly camouflaged. We again spun into a defensive circle, surprise completely on our faces.

De'Jesus laughed. "You've been trained by the military. You can relax; if we wanted to kill you we would have done it all ready. Who taught you if you don't mind me asking."

"Colonel Felix." I answered.

De'Jesus did a double take. "Colonel Felix?!" He laughed like a loon for almost an entire minute. We all just stared at him. Eventually he managed to stop laughing and then with this massive smile, he said, "Felix is my uncle. He had passed along that he was teaching some kids how to defend themselves, never in my life woulda thought that I would run into y'all!"

"How do you know it's us?" Andre asked.

De'Jesus, or Jackson, fell into step beside us. "His last message a few days ago described each of you." He pointed at me and said " Beautiful pale girl with the personality of a snapping turtle." Everyone sniggered including the other people that had been hiding. I glared at them with pure malevolence and they shut up mid-snicker.

Jackson then pointed at Tori and said "Hispanic Mother Teresa."

Everyone nodded in agreement and Tori gave a small embarrassed shrug.

He pointed at Beck and said "Leader that's too damn handsome"

Everyone, especially Cat and I agreed with that. Cat and I looked at each other and then laughed. Beck gave his own embarrassed shrug and looked more embarrassed by the comment then anything.

He pointed at Robbie and then Trina and said "Techno-Wonder Nerd" and "Complete Raging Narcissistic twit" Neither looked all that please with their descriptions, and Andre was last and got "Womanizing Musician"

The descriptions got a lot of laughter that we really needed.

"We were ambushed some ways back there. Know anything about it?" I demanded.

"I know the group. They're idiots." Jackson said.

"Knew." I corrected.

Jackson looked surprised but then shrugged. "Anyways, they had been attacking people for about a month or so, ever since they ran out of supplies. Most people aren't ready for that kind of fighting so they abandon their shit pretty quickly. Pretty sure y'all are the first group to actually fight back. Must have shocked them."

"Were you watching us?" Trina demanded. "Why the hell didn't you do anything?"

"Because it wasn't our fight. And my main concern was making sure that you weren't a threat to my people. Rumor had it that the Hollywood Misfits were a group of teenage psychopaths. I watched each of you drop them like it was nothing. Our group is pretty much entirely non-combatants. And you were winning the fight until one of them pulled out that RPG."

Jane spoke up. "You still could have done something, instead of waiting for us to fight past them, besides how do we know that this isn't some weird as trap to get us to stay with you?"

"You've meet Sykes."

We all stilled and our hands drifted towards the triggers on our weapons.

"Easy easy, my husband hates Sykes even more then I do. Which is saying something." Jackson said, holding up his hands. "Sykes's reach doesn't make it that far over here, besides we all crossed her at some point so we can't exactly have any trade deal things set up all right?"

We stayed ready for anything and Jackson sighed and started walking forward again. His group of snipers fell in with us, not around us like we were prisoners, but mingled amongst us as if we were all friends. We chatted but stayed wary, we didn't know these people.

After walking for what seemed like forever, (again) we came across a ring of cars and buses parked in a circle. Children laughed and ran around as a few adults tried in vain to corral them.

"See what I meant? Not a lot of fighters. We could use more." Jackson said.

A woman walked up to us. She looked to be about in her forties with short brown hair. She had an eye patch over her left eye, but otherwise had a soft face with plump lips.

Her stiff back and bearing screamed authority.

"These are the ones I radioed about. Uncle Felix's group. They wiped out over half of Richie's group before the fireball got the rest." Jackson said proudly, as if he had done it himself.

"Really? That's interesting. Felix was Delta force so it's no surprise anyone he taught would be good. Welcome to our group." One-eye said.

"Hold the fuck up. Who said we were joining?" I snapped.

"You are for the night at least. Unless you want to wander around this area in the dark." One eye said, completely unruffled. "Besides I figure you'd want a ride to San Francisco."

We all looked at each other. "We'll stay for now. If we feel threatened by anyone in your group…" Beck said.

"You'll have every right to react defensively, and I can say the same for my people. Now if you'll excuse me." One eye turned and walked away.

"You guys seem trusting." Jane said.

"If Felix trusts yea, then we do." Jackson said. "Who are you by the way?"

"Jane."

Jane and the rest of the misfits made small talk but I ignored them. I spotted a man sitting on a box staring off into space. He had a dirty disheveled look to him. A smile broke onto my face as I walked towards him. The others saw and quickly caught up, but I ignored them.

I got to the man and stared at him. He stared back and his eyes narrowed and he looked disgusted.

"What a nice hello, most people would be jumping up and down in excitement over a reunion like this." I snapped sarcastically.

"Most people have good reasons to be excited." He snapped.

"Nice to see some things haven't changed. You're still a massive asshole."

"And you're an ungrateful little bitch. Always have been."

"Love you too, father."

_This place is intentionally left blank._

_-C.H. _


	21. Excessive rage

My father stared at me. I stared back at him. There was no lost love in either of our eyes. I heard the others gasp in surprise but I ignored them.

"You see your mother at all?" he demanded.

I snorted. "Not since she walked out when I was seven."

"Figures. I take it you have a plan to get us out of here?"

I my face could have gone for the literal picture of surprise. Then it turned to rage. "Yea I do have a plan. A plan for the Misfits to get out of here. My family. Not you. You can burn in hell for all I care."

My father jumped up and advanced on me. My hand went down to my pistol on my thigh, but that's not what stopped him. He was staring past me, at Tori. Tori had her own gun up and pointed at him. The others their safeties off and had their hands near the triggers.

"I'm your damn father." He ground out.

"Biologically. That's it. Want my advice? Stay with the convoy. They might get you out."

I turned and walked away, fighting the tears that were coming to my face. The others walked behind me, silent as the woods at night. "We need a place to sleep tonight." I said to Beck. Beck looked like he was going to argue, but then he nodded. The others split up and began wondering around. Tori stayed near me, but she thankfully didn't say anything.

I couldn't believe that man! Not once did he pay attention to me before the fall. And He clearly made absolutely no effort to find me after the fall! And now he demands that I help save his worthless ass? Fucking bullshit! I seethed in fury. I felt Tori's hands around mine, and she gave me this warm smile. I tried to return it but I couldn't.

A loud engine grabbed our attention. A school bus was being driven into the parking area. When it stopped, Beck jumped down from it and smiled. "Traded a few guns and ammo and we got our bus!"

"Seems a little to good to be true." I said.

Beck's smile dropped a little. "I did have to promise that we would have stay and help defend on the convoy. For at least a couple weeks."

I looked at Tori, and she looked back at me. We both shrugged. Beck went around gathering everyone up. When everyone got to the bus, Beck outlined his plan. We all smiled and got to work. We "borrowed" tools from some people and started removing the seats. There was some debate, but we passed the chairs on to the other convoy people, some who immediately added it to their own cars. (Don't ask me how; these guys are some surprising engineers)

We spread out the blankets and made beds for everyone. Andre and Beck somehow managed to rig a couple hammocks up in the back. What little supplies we had left were put in the front of it. I would have been embarrassed over the fact that I spent a good five minutes walking back and forth, just enjoying the amount of room we had if I hadn't seen the others doing the exact same thing. By the time we had finished it was well into the night. We all collapsed onto our respective places and almost immediately fell asleep.

The next day, One-Eye announced that we would be leaving in a day or two, so we spent all day fixing the bus up. Jane took to calling the bus the Arts Nest. Pretty soon, and without thinking about it we all were calling it that.

I saw my father skulking around; he wasn't doing much to help anyone. Big surprise. I wondered why One-Eye kept him around. Every time I saw him, I couldn't help but get angry. Well….Angrier.

Around dusk, I chased everyone out of the bus and put up some blankets over the windows. Tori was fast asleep on the ground near were I usually slept. I may not be modest but I don't hand out free shows. I took off my shirt and bra and grabbed a couple of those wet napkin things. I was wiping my self down when a pair of hands wrap around my waist. Without thinking I swung my elbow back and it was caught. So a human threat then. I dropped low and this caught my aggressor off guard. I twisted my shoulder around and kicked my leg out behind me. With a short squeal the person flipped over me and slammed into the ground. I spun them around and sat on their waist.

Tori wheezed and tried to get her breath back. Oops.

"You should know better then to sneak up on me." I snapped.

"I just wanted to give you a hug!" She whined.

"Next time say something."

I looked at Tori, whose eyes stayed glued to my chest. "Like what you see?" I asked mischievously. Tori nodded. I leaned down to kiss her, but just before our lips could meet, her hands trailed across my stomach and ended where the scar rested. I put my hand over hers.

"I'm fine." I whispered.

"No you're not. You're angrier then usual. You blew up at Cat when she offered you some bacon."

I huffed in irritation. "It's nothing." I moved to get off her and to get dressed. Clearly we weren't about to have sex so I'm not wasting my time with talks about emotions. (Ew) I had just put my bra on Tori grabbed my shoulders and spun me around. Tori pushed me onto the ground and sat on me.

"If I had known I was about to get laid I would have started taking off my clothes." I said. Tori didn't say anything. She just leaned down and kissed me senseless. Sadly it didn't go anywhere.

"You're father….he's..an…an..ass" I blinked at Tori use of foul language, but before I could comment on it, she continued talking.

"But we're you're family now. And we have your back. So could you please stop getting mad at us. You could ta"

"I'm not talking to anyone about it. But…I'll try not getting mad at you. Might need some motivation though…"

Tori smiled. "I can help with that." I smiled back and Tori leaned back down and our lips came close. A loud banging on the door interrupted us.

"Yo! We need the bus too chicas!" Andre shouted. Tori and I growled in irritation.

"Later?" I demanded.

"Later" Tori promised without hesitation. I grabbed a shirt and slipped it on, just as the rest of the misfits came barging into the bus. "Sorry to interrupt, but night is falling and we'd like to get some sleep." Jane said, not sounding sorry at all.

Tori huffed and I just settled for glaring at her. "Pregnant lady needs her beauty sleep." I muttered. Jane glared at me and I glared back. Andre and Tori wisely separated us. We all started changing into our respective sleepwear. I grabbed Tori and yanked her under the sheets. We cuddled up against each other. We held each other's hands and looked into each other's faces.

Ugh. How sappy.

Tori rolled over and backed into my arms.

I wrapped my arms around her. Tori's breath ever so slowly fell to an even and silent pace. I thought about what Tori had said. My father could never fail to set me off just by being there. But the Misfits had been there for me before the fall. Even if I didn't want to admit it. I shouldn't take my rage out on them.

"Sorry." I said out loud.

"It's okay." Cat said.

"Why are you still awake kit?"

"Can't sleep."

"We got you Kit. Go to sleep." I said. In the darkness, I saw her nod and snuggle into Beck.

I sighed and tried to get some sleep myself. My eyes had just begun to close when someone screamed

"WALKERS!"

_All I have time to write for today. _

_Enjoy_

_-C.H._


	22. On the road again

The scream had me up immediately. Tori spilled from my arms and landed on the ground. Cat was all ready shaking the few who hadn't woken up. The same woman was still screaming. "Someone needs to shut her up before more show up!" I snapped.

Almost immediately the sound of a hand striking flesh was heard and the woman shut up mid shriek.

"Thank you." Jane and I said at the same time.

"Andre and Jane stay here and guard the nest. Rest of you, with me!" Beck said.

"You heard Captain Rogers, lets go!" I said.

Beck gave me an exasperated look before we barreled out of the bus. The convoy had set up in a circle, with the biggest vehicles on the outside, and the smaller ones on the inside. I spotted one eye standing on the top of a truck directing people. We ran up to her. One eye looked at us and after a second she directed us to different parts of the circle. I stood near one eye and watched outwards.

"How many corpsers?" I demanded. (In a whisper. I'm not stupid) One eye glanced at me. "Only two. Both dispatched immediately. That stupid woman may have attracted more though."

"She have a break down or something?" I asked.

One eye gave a shrug. "Might have. She's the easily scared type so she just freaked."

"Who slapped her?"

"Oh you heard that? I did."

I grinned at that, and One eye smirked at me. A rustling in the bushes grabbed our attention. I aimed my crossbow Blanca in that direction and One pulled back with a bow. We held out breath and waited. It was sort of anti-climatic when a little beagle walked out of the bushes. We both breathed a sigh of relief and gave a couple light giddy laughs. We almost collapsed from relief.

One Eye stood up and watched the beagle. The beagle was a lot more interested in the ground and whatever food might be there then a bunch of humans. "We're good then."

I looked at her in confusion. Thankfully OE decided to explain. "Whenever there are walkers around, animals disappear. Even the bugs. If this beagle is more interested in finding food, then clearly there aren't any undead threats around."

I was surprised at that, but then when I thought about it, it had made a lot of sense. Whenever a corpser showed up, it had gotten freakishly quiet. Like Mother Nature simply decided to pack up and leave.

"You and your friends can return to your bus. Get as much sleep as you can. We leave at dawn." OE said. And with that, she got down from on top of the car and walked off. I followed her as she stopped to speak with every person that she came across. I still didn't know what to make of her, but she wasn't trying to kill me or any of the misfits so I couldn't complain about her…just yet.

I jumped down and made my way back to the bus. Beck had Cat on his back and both of them were giving light laughs.

"What's so funny?" I asked them.

"So you both can tell I sleep in my boxers." Beck said.

"And we both know that first hand." I said, and we all laughed.

"Right. So obviously we had no time to get dressed, and while I'm on my corner, this woman starts chiding me for being so immodestly dressed. There are women around she says!"

We broke up laughing at that. We had just reached the nest where the others were waiting. As we piled into the nest, Cat and Beck retold the story. We rolled around the nest, laughing at the absurdity of the situation.

Jane gave a little hiccupping laugh and had to try a couple times before she could speak properly.

"So let me get this straight. At any moment we could have been attacked by a horde of flesh eating monsters, and this woman is more concerned over the fact that you're in your boxers?!"

Beck had to straighten up in order to nod in agreement. Tori rolled around, laughing so hard that she couldn't breath and just sat there, clapping like a mentally challenged seal. After a bit we managed to calm down and drift off to sleep. I had managed to pass on that OE wanted to leave at dawn, which was only a few hours away, so we needed to get some sleep.

We all fell asleep with our respective partners and fell asleep. Dawn came way too damn early. Trina was unanimously selected to be the first driver. None of us had a clue on how to drive a bus, but following a bunch of other vehicles shouldn't be too hard. Luckily, OE had someone give us a crash course right before we left, and after the lesson, everyone but Trina went right back to sleep. After a few hours, I woke up and took over driving. It was a dull drive and I preferred it that way. Meant I wasn't getting shot at.

A little after noon, I handed driving over to Beck. We traded driving by hoping out of the seat and letting the other person get in. Far from the safest way, but we didn't have to stop and hold up the convoy. That might be fatal. I headed to the back of the nest and saw Andre and Jane resting in one of the hammocks, gently swaying in time with the movements of the nest.

Tori read a book while Trina and Robbie discussed some nonsense about her hair. Cat seemed lost in thought. I stretched a bit and looked out the windows. I didn't see much. Shortly after Beck had started driving, the convoy had barged its way onto the highway.

I sighed in boredom. The bus bumped and I nearly lost my footing. "Sorry!" Beck called out.

"I've always thought that the buses with the flat front like this one looked better then the others." Cat said suddenly.

"Why did we get an entire bus to ourselves?" I asked, Cat's random-assed sentence bringing that question to the forefront of my mind.

"Well….One Eye needed someone to drive this bus for them." Andre said.

"That can't be the only reason." Tori said.

Beck sighed from up front. "And no one wanted to share a car with us. Everyone things that we're a gang of psychopaths."

I laughed loudly. Tori gave me chiding look before smiling her self. "Doesn't matter, we got a whole ride to ourselves!" Jane said.

Everyone cheered at that. Was it selfish that we wanted to keep a ride all to ourselves? Probably. But after almost an entire year of fighting for ourselves and for scavenging to stay alive, I think we were entitled to be a little selfish. I moved to the other side of the nest and stared at the remnants of the cars. Moving amongst them were corpsers. Some turned towards us, and started shuffling towards our side of the road, but we were long gone before they could get close to us.

Tori came up next to me and I wrapped my arm around her. After standing for a bit, and nearly losing our footing due to some sharp turns and cuts, Tori sat down and because my arm was around her; I had to sit down as well. Tori put her head on my shoulder.

"When do you think things will get violent again?" Tori asked.

I shrugged. "Knowing our luck. Soon."

Tori looked sad over that, so I drew her even closer into my arms. "Don't worry about it. Just enjoy the nest."

Tori smiled and gave me a light peck on the lips. "Good advice." She grabbed her book and started reading. I listened to the conversations playing all around me, not contributing to them at all.

Looking out the back of the nest, I saw the mid afternoon sun beginning to set. A corpse stepped out from behind an SUV. It turned its decaying head towards us, lifted its arms and started shuffling after us. Even as we rapidly pulled away, more corpsers seemed to appear from no where and started shuffling or shambling after us.

_So sorry about ending the last chapter on a cliffhanger. I promise it will happen again. Because I'm a horrible person. _

_Hope you all enjoyed. See you all next time. _

_-C.H. _


	23. Elephants and Camps

You ever watch those zombie movies, and it's almost always constant action? Yea well Hollywood lied. I'v lost count the number of times I've been bored after everything went to shit. Seems a bit weird to be complaining about boredom when there are flesh eating monsters about, but that's how it goes. I glanced out the back of the bus. Jane was knocked out in the hammock. Her stubborn pride couldn't hide the fact that she was incredibly tired. Andre was sitting with Tori chattering away. I didn't bother to pay attention to their conversation.

Up front, Cat was driving the Nest and Beck was sitting on the stairs talking to her and pointing things out. Robbie and Trina were asleep. I wont lie, I was horribly confused about Trina. I mean, back at Hollywood Arts she was this massive narcissistic bitch who thought she was the king's shit. (When in reality, she was just shit) We didn't even want her to come on the road trip but she blackmailed Tori into letting her come with. And when the world goes to shit and we have to fight for our very survival, Trina drops most of that narcissistic personality and actually helped out several times. I had always thought that she was weak at heart and would break when reality would eventually slap her across the face.

She was still incredibly aggravating on a good day, but I felt that I could rely on her. I snorted. If anyone had told me that I would be thinking of Trina as reliable; I would have them locked in the dangerous-incurable wards in the asylums. I sighed and leaned my head back. I closed my eyes and sort of dozed for a bit. When I opened my eyes, Cat's face filled my entire vision. With a strangled yell I rocketed my head back and slammed it into the side of the bus. I cursed a blue streak and massaged the back of my head. I glared at Cat, who rightfully looked terrified.

"Well?!" I snapped.

"I was just trying to tell you that...that...that..." Cat trailed off. Everyone that was awake stopped snickering or outright laughing and stared at Cat. I followed Cat's line of sight and looked out the window. My jaw promptly hit the floor. On the other lanes, a herd of at least a dozen plus african elephants marched forward. At least three baby elephants raced around the herd playing some sort of game.

"You seeing this?" Tori asked.

"It's elephants. I'm pretty sure you've seen them before." I said. Trying to cover up my surprise with sarcasm. I don't think I succeeded.

"Yea but not like this." Tori said, not even the least bit phased by my sarcasm. She was right though. All the elephants we had seen were tamed. And behind an enclosure in some zoo. These ones..they were clearly wild.

"Oh my god look!" Cat yelled and pointed. She was pointing at the trees along the highway. Okay trees? So what? I was about to say something scathingly sarcastic, when one of the tree branches dipped down. Like way down. A monkey was sitting on the branch. A fucking monkey.

What. The. Hell.

"How?" I asked. "Someone must have let them out. Only thing I can think of." Andre said. My question spawned a debate that kept everyone occupied for several hours. I glanced out the window and watched as we pulled off the highway. Word passed back via walky-talky that we were looking for a place to sleep. An empty camp ground seemed the place to be to spend the night. We pulled into the area and helped set up camp. I hunted down OE and "politely" asked why we weren't pushing into San francisco. Surprisingly, she answered the question seriously and didn't treat me like a fucking child.

"We can't go driving around at night. Attracts to much of the wrong attention. And we would waste gas trying to find paths through all the abandoned cars that we would see in a heart beat if it was daytime. Don't worry. We'll get to San Francisco soon enough. The USS Sovereign is waiting off of Alcatraz." She said.

"Okay. Sounds good to me." I said. I turned to walk away when One Eye suddenly said "So how surprised was your group at seeing the elephants and the monkeys?"

Caught off guard I stammered out an off handed comment that we were surprised. One Eye smiled and it seemed to take years off of her face. With that one smile, she went from serious authority to a kind mother. To say I was surprised would be an understatement.

Still smiling, she went on. "I had heard rumors that people were running around letting animals out of zoos and pet stores, but I hadn't believed it."

"This happening all across America?" I asked.

OE shrugged. "Probably." OE and I talked for a few more minutes, mostly about the animals would do now that they're free from the zoos. We didn't come up with anything and just ended up talking in circles. Even so it was pretty nice. OE sent me back to the nest when she noticed Tori was looking for me. (damn good eyesight for someone who only has one eye)

Tori linked her arm with mine and all but dragged me back to the nest. "The others are still there." I said. Tori was confused for a second before she burned red. "That wasn't..i'm not...oh you!" she spluttered.

I laughed at her and Tori fumed and stuck her tongue out at me. I pulled her against me and kissed her. "still mad." She mumbled against my lips.

"Tough."

Tori laughed. We had reached the Nest. The door was open and Cat was outside, looking worried. "Something wrong Kit? Monkeys stealing your shit?" I asked.

"No, we can't find Robbie or Trina. They went on a scavenging run together and that was almost a half hour ago."

Tori's face went from jovial to worried in a heart beat. I had better control over my face but I was worried as well. OE set strict and small scavenging runs that should only take at most fifteen minutes. That's how it was the last time we camped, it wouldn't change now.

"Maybe they snuck off to have sex or something. God knows Trina likes to get it on whenever she can." I said.

Both Cat and Tori shook their heads. "No, Robbie's no exhibitionist. Not even Trina could convince him to do...anything." Tori said.

I grudgingly nodded that she was right. Beck came back then. "I haven't found them. One Eye said that she se-" The rest of his sentence was swallowed by gunshots. We looked at each other in alarm.

"Cat stay with Jane and Andre!" Beck yelled.

Cat nodded and began to climb on top of the bus. Andre passed us a couple rifles, but we didn't have time to grab all of them from the back of the bus. Luckily I had my trusty little pistol on my thigh. We all began sprinting towards the gun shots. Which were happening more frequently. "No returning shots." I muttered. "Does that make it better or worse?" Beck asked, sprinting just slightly ahead of me.

"He asks as if I should know." I responded.

Sprinting through the area, we found Robbie and Trina. Robbie and Trina were shooting at a growing herd of corpsers. Trina saw us and grabbed Robbie. Together, they turned and ran towards us. Well, Trina ran. Robbie limped hurriedly behind her.

"What happened?" Beck demanded.

"I don't know! We were looking through the main buildings when we found these corpsers. We've been running for who knows how long trying to get away!" Trina yelled.

We started to fire on the corpsers, noticing how more and more came shambling off of the road and towards the sounds of gun fire.

OE and Jackson and several grunts came sprinting towards us. At Jackson's barked command; the grunts moved in and opened up on the corpsers. "There's too many ma'am. By the time we kill them all, more would probably show up." Jackson said.

OE snarled something. "We'll beat them off, but we'll take casualties we can't afford." She snapped, frustration evident on her face. She paused to gather herself and then nodded. "Okay, what we need is"

"A distraction." Robbie said softly. We all looked at him. He smiled, and even in the fading sun we could see tears forming. He lifted his pant leg and for the first time I noticed that it was torn and there was a lot of blood. Shock and horror dawned on all of us.

Trina's mouth opened and closed several times, but she couldn't say anything. "Robbie..." Beck said.

"I'm dead anyways. I can get some time for the convoy to leave. Just..Just make it Alcatraz all right?" Robbie was close to tears now, and so was all of us. The grunts had stopped shooting and were falling back. OE stepped forward and pulled Robbie into a hug.

"Thank you." She stepped back and ordered Jackson to get the convoy ready to leave. Robbie looked at all of us, and we stepped forward and with tears in our eyes; we hugged him good bye. Trina broke down, and Tori and Beck supported her. Robbie and Trina kissed one last time.

Then with tears in his eyes, Robbie turned towards the ever growing herd and started yelling and walking towards them. The heard got closer and closer to him. Just before they could fall on him, I grabbed a rifle out of some grunt's hands. "Hey Robbie!" I yelled. Robbie turned around. I took careful aim. I saw him mouth _Thank you._

I pulled the trigger. The rifle kicked against my shoulder. Robbie's head snapped back and he fell. The corpsers fell on him. We turned and ran. I don't remember much what happened after that. Just the jumbled rush as we got back to the campsite, stuffing ourselves into the Nest and driving off. Later on the highway, OE called a meeting. She stood in the center, next to the raging fire. Someone had passed out cups that was filled with some liquid.

"We are here right now, because a boy sacrificed himself to buy us time to escape. Yes, we could have fought off the roamers. But we would have lost people. Thanks to that boy..No, that man, we did not lose people today. I want you to remember him. Especially when we reach San Francisco and the Sovereign." OE paused. She lifted up her cup and yelled "TO ROBBIE!"

_To Robbie!_ The crowed intoned.

We all crowded back into the nest. Trina sobbed in a corner. No one smiled. Tori walked over to Trina and hugged her. Cat soon followed. And one by one we all crowded around Trina, hugging her and each other.

"Thank you Jade." Trina sobbed.

"Wha-for what?" I asked.

"You didn't let him suffer. And didn't let him turn..into one of those things."

"I..." I trailed off. I didn't know how to respond to that. Tears rolled down my face. Robbie's face appeared before my eyes, and I felt the weight of the gun in my hands. Bile rose and slammed into my throat. I untangled myself from the group and ran outside. I hunched over the side of the road and started to vomit profusely.

Tori was there, next to me. Helping me. "No. go see to your sister." I said, gasping for breath. Tori didnt move. "your sister." I said. "She's asleep, and the others are still with her and falling asleep too." Tori handed me a bottle of mouthwash. I washed my mouth out and looked up at the sky.

"I'm sorry Robbie." I whispered. Tori pulled me into her arms. "You did the right thing. Letting him get eaten alive? And then turned into...those things?"

"Yea..yea you're right. Jesus Christ. I hate this world." I hugged her back and pulled her tightly against me.

"So do I Jade. So do I."

_Yay for getting my laptop fixed!_

_-C.H. _


	24. Losing your humanity

The nest was completely subdued. No one said anything. Trina was an absolute wreck. We had lost Robbie in a complete freak moment. Like Holly. Like Terry. One moment everything was fine, the next...I couldn't for the life of me decide if I was upset over the loss of Robbie, or the fact that at any moment; any one of us could die a horrific death. I looked at my hands. These hands had taken a rifle and pulled the trigger ending Robbie's life.

A mercy.

I curled my hands into fists. This world is completely fucked up.

The bus bounced a little and shifted my weight in order to stay standing. Beck was driving. He looked depressed, but other the that, he looked fine. I glanced around, and other then Trina it seemed like everyone was saddened over the loss of Robbie; but not caught up in it. Save for Trina. We hadn't even lost that many people, and we were all ready numb to it? When did that happen?

No. No that's not it. Everyone is acting. Suppressing their sorrow. That has to be it. It has to be.

How many more people are we going to lose before we reach Alcatraz?

Thinking of these things wasn't serving any goddamn purpose. I glanced at the road. There was nothing there. This road was actually empty. We were on the high way again and tearing towards San Francisco. OE said that we were running out of time. I believed her. When haven't we been running out of time? It was frustrating. Constantly moving. Yes I know it's a constant complaint about the fact that we never really set down in one area but I just really want to stay in one area.

I probably should stop complaining about it shouldn't I?

The vehicles in front pulled off of the road. Beck guided the bus and parked it. We started to get out, but I blocked Tori and had her stay with Trina. With the complete wreck that Trina is right now I wouldn't put it past her to do something stupid. Especially with a gun near her. We closed the bus doors behind us and started heading towards the lead car.

"How are you kids?" Beck asked.

"Sad. How else would we be?" I snapped.

Beck gave me a somewhat chiding look. Even though we had broken up months ago, it was still pretty effective at shutting me up. One day I will be immune to that look. One day.

"I'm sad about Robbie..but we can't spend all this time being sad because we're always moving...It just...happened." Cat said. She was right in way. We all looked away uncomfortably. Deep down we knew that she was right. It was the same thing with Terry and Holly all over again. All of their deaths..it was just one more thing in a shitty line of days.

By now, who hasn't lost someone? We mourned the last couple days, but even then we were all ready preparing for the next few days. And here I go, thinking about this again. What Trina went next? Or me? Or Tori? What will happen? I mean, whoever bought the farm next would be beyond caring if they were remembered or not...but what will the living do? Will they move on? Or be stuck with memories?

Jesus Christ. This line of thinking is more morbid then what I usually think. By the time I had cleared myself of all of the thoughts we had reached the front of the convoy. I somewhat listened to the conversations the others were having.

Basically they all missed Robbie, but really wanted to escape North America as soon as possible. The same damn conversation being played over and over. Barely any change to it at all.

We came up on OE talking to my father. "Can't we go any farther?" OE demanded.

"Not unless you've got some way of turning rust into fuel. We're down to a quarter tank on the smaller cars and don't even get me started on the buses and trucks." he replied, completely unruffled.

"Goddamn it. We need to find some gas."

"If there's any left Lori. And we're still three hours outside of San Francisco. And that's if any roamers aren't in the way."

OE or Lori, looked like she was ready to bite nails in half. She turned her gaze to us. "Beck correct?" she said, addressing him.

"Yea?" he asked warily. I think we all knew what was coming. "Here's a find as much gas as you possibly can. Diesel, whatever. Take the atvs."

"those make a lot of noise." Jane said.

"Would you rather carry several gallons of gas in your hands?" Lori asked pointedly. That shut Jane up. A ton of noise, but we'd be able to move quickly.

"Where would we find gas?" I asked.

"These recently invented places called gas stations." My father deadpanned.

The misfits sniggered and even One eyed Lori looked like she was fighting a smile. I grumbled but didn't say anything. The ATVs were rolled off of the back of a trailer and we started them up. Tori and I one ATV, and another grunt named Lucas was with Cat on the other. Andre and some grunt named Grant went on the third and final one. The rest stayed behind to watch over the convoy, and Trina.

We rolled away from the convoy and had to drive for a bit before finding a turn off with a sign advertising gas stations. Lucky for us they were right there next to the exit. When we stopped, Andre Beck and Grant fanned out and started pumping gas. As luck would have it there was some left. Even diesel which was a shock. A single corpser was the only thing to worry about. And it was shuffling away from us.

"Wooweee! What have we here?!" A voice called out. I spoke way too fucking soon.

We all yanked our guns up and set into a defensive circle. Four guys came out of the gas station. Dressed in rags and smelling awful. Even from the door way I could smell them. Their teeth were yellow and I could see sores and dirt covering them. One guy forgo everything but a pair of shorts. They had a generic bag of weapons, basic shotguns and a couple pistols.

"Ya'll taking our gas. That there stealing ya know?" The loud one said. He stood in the middle and was clearly the leader of the group. He stood a little taller then me and had a pair of goggles on. His hair was shoulder length and matted with dirt and who knew what else.

Beck had left me in charge for some reason. He and everyone else had stressed that I be diplomatic. Right. Sure. Lets give diplomacy a chance.

"We didn't know anyone was in here." I said.

"Shame. Shame. Well now. We're reasonable people. Give us something we want. We lets you get some gas."

I thought about it. There wasn't any guarantees that we could drop them without and losses on our side, and besides being rank as hell they really weren't doing anything.

"Sure." I said, and gestured for Tori to bring up the backpack of supplies we brought. Just in case something like this happened.

"We have food, soap, and some water. What would you like?"

"You. And maybe miss red over there. My boys can take miss mexico."

"And you can fuck off. We're not whoring ourselves out. We can be reasonable about this."

Lead boy spat some brown stream onto the ground. "I am being reasonable. I want you to shake that delightful ass of yours for me. And y'all get some gas. Take all the gas in fact. Now don't that sound like a good deal?"

"No. Sounds like i'm getting the shit end of the deal."

It took the leader a couple seconds but he got that I had just insulted him. He stuck his fingers in his mouth and whistled. Five more guys came out of the store. "Now lookie here bitch. This is going to end one way, or another. I suggest you be smart about it."

I thought about. I had practiced my draw as often as I could. I had to make it count. I seized up lead boy. Didn't hesitate. My glock was my hand and the safety was off. I had stupidly left my rifle on the atv but whatever. I can make do with a pistol. The others had their weapons up a split second behind me.

"New deal. We take your gas. We leave. We never see each other again. Sound good?" I said.

"And just what the fuck do we get out of it?" lead boy screamed.

"You get to keep your worthless lives. Whatever they're worth." I snapped. "Lucas, Andre. Keep pumping gas. Ah...raise that gun fugly and I will drop you." I snapped.

Leader boy raged but wisely kept his gun at his side. "Back in the store. All of you." They hesitated, but started to back up to the store. Luckily the gas still pumped itself. I don't know how or why this gas station still had fuel after everything that happened, but hey? Who's going to question luck?

It took freaking forever and my arms were starting to hurt when Lucas announced that they were done. We had just started to get on the atv's when leader boy stepped out again. Tori looked at me worriedly. I pushed her behind me and gave her a reassuring smile.

"What do you want?" I demanded.

He lifted up a grenade. "Ya'll step off them atv's right now. And you miss bitch, are going to step forward and give me a mouth suckin. Right now. " He yelled.

I stepped off of the atv. Tori grabbed my arm and opened her mouth. My put my hand on hers and gave a light kiss. "You'll let the others go?" I asked.

"Yea sure. Long as they don't come back."

"All right. I stepped forward, ignoring the protests of the others. I kept my hand near my thigh. As I walked closer, Leader boy started to smile. I could all ready see the bulge in his pants. Without a conscience thought my pistol leapt from my holster and the safety was off. I pulled the trigger.

Leader boy didn't have the chance to be surprised before the bullet tore his brain out. The rest of his gang was back in the shop and yelled in surprise. That was about all they had time to do. I opened fire on the store. The others joined in and pretty soon the store front was ventilated. I ran and grabbed the grenade before getting back on the atv.

Tori throttled the atv and took off. I looked back at the man I just killed and the ventilated store. I listened to the screams of the wounded and the dying.

I smiled.

_Might there be an entirely new jori story on the horizon? there just might be. Hope you all enjoyed. _

_-C.H._


	25. Surviving and Morals

"So that was close." Tori said when we got back to the convoy. "Yea I guess it was." I replied. My mind was elsewhere. Namely on her tank top that was covered in sweat and dangerously close to becoming see through. She had a bra on, but that didn't matter. A sights a sight am I right?

Tori reached forward and put her fingers under my chin and tilted my head up. "Eyes on mine Jade."

I rolled my eyes but complied. "Something bothering you?" I asked. And yes I was somewhat patient about it. I hope she didn't start talking about feelings or some bullshit like that. I'd much rather be ogling my girl instead.

Tori looked so uncharacteristically sad that I was thrown off. "You didn't hesitate." She whispered.

"In what? Killing that gank? He deserved it."

"Well yea, but you didn't even try and talk to him. You just shot.."

"I tried to talk, but then he started being completely unreasonable."

Tori flinched. She took a moment and gathered herself up again. "But when he came back out, you could have shot him in the knee or something."

"And what? Have another group of fucking psychos chasing after us? We're all ready running from Sykes. At least she'll have the decency to kill us out right."

"You don't even feel bad do you?" Tori demanded.

"I'd feel bad if I had killed some random guy. Instead I killed some gank that looked ready to rape me." I snapped my frustration quickly reach a boiling point.

Tori's face congealed with rage and sadness and she stomped off. I snarled in frustration and stormed away. I stormed passed my father who looked mildly amused.

"Have something to say?" I snapped.

He shook his head. "No. Well other then you completely missed what your girlfriend was upset about. I'm surprised she didn't yell at you."

I blinked. I was surprised my self. Tori wasn't known for her restraint. If she felt bad about something, she'll let you know in a loud as possible voice. I did a mental rewind and I noticed what I missed. Her sadness. Her sadness held back her anger. But what the fuck did she have to be sad about?

"She might be sad over the fact that you killed some guy and don't even feel bad about it."

"How the fuck?" I demanded.

He looked smug. "I'm not stupid. Pretty easy to piece a few things together."

The fact that he could figure it out and I couldn't was just the shit topping on a crap-tastic cake. "Have you ever killed anyone?" I demanded. He nodded. "Yes. One guy during the escape from LA. The military was dropping bombs. I wanted to escape. I had a wrench in my hands. This man. He didn't speak a word of english. It didn't matter. He wasn't going to give me his car. So I hit him with the wrench. And I kept hitting him."

My father looked away. "Do you regret it?" I asked softly.

He looked back. "I do and I don't. Survival is paramount. Or at least that's what your grandfather would say. I survived. That man should have fought better. Survival of the fittest. That's what I keep telling my self. Over. And over. And over." He shook his head. "No matter what, the important thing is that you and that girl of yours are alive to debate about it. Too many people can't say that anymore."

"I don't feel bad. I feel bad about Robbie because even though he was a selfish jack ass sometimes...most of the time, he was still my friend. But you're right. We have to survive. It doesn't matter how."

I turned to walk away. I stopped then looked back. "Thanks...Dad."

For the first time in my life, I saw a surprised look on his face. There was no carefully guarded mask, no smug look. Just pure surprise, and maybe...just maybe, a smile.

I turned back around and started to hunt down Tori. She had to see reason. Protecting ourselves was the number one thing. The ends justified the means. We could debate over morality after we're all safe. Right?

I closed my eyes and that gank's face flashed before my eyes. Bile rose in my throat and I immediately squelched it down. But once that horrid feeling was smothered, another rose in its place. One that wasn't going to be dismissed so easily. The feeling of elation. I _enjoyed_ pulling the trigger. The sight of his head snapping back as the bullet torethrough it. The sight and sounds of the bullets tearing through the gas station.

Was this feeling wrong? I always enjoyed inflicting pain on others. And now, in this world...i have so many opportunities to inflict so much misery...An image flashed before my eyes. Me dressed up in tight clothes,clearly scavenged and put together; my mid rift showing, all sorts of weapons strapped to my body. I sat on top of a pile of corpses.

Is this who I was going to become? Part of me reviled and hated that image. An even bigger part of me screamed for that image to become a reality. I shook my head and kept walking. Now isn't the time to be having weird thoughts. But an outfit...kind of like one seen in Borderlands...I wonder...

I got near the nest and I heard voices. For some reason, I slipped behind the bus and listened to what they were saying. I didn't know why I did it; it just seemed like a good idea. Turns out I was right.

"We've got to be careful! We have to have some morals or we'll going to end up like the skullz or who knows?!" Tori said passionately.

"I don't think we're in any danger of ending up like those sociopaths. Unless you've suddenly developed a desire to start raping people." Jane said coolly.

"WHAT?! No I havent!" Tori snapped.

"You sure? Cuz I've seen the looks you've been shooting Jade when she isn't looking. I think you're about one step away from tearing her clothes off of her no matter who's around."

I had to cover my mouth to keep myself from laughing. Tori's face was beet red and she had her mouth opening and closing like a fish stuck on dry land. The others were trying (and failing) not to laugh.

"Moving on.." Tori muttered before drawing herself back to her not exactly imposing hight. "We have to try other things besides violence. We get too used to it..." Tori trailed off. The others shifted.

Andre rubbed his face before putting his arms around Jane who was starting to show. "I've got a kid coming Tori. And i'm going to protect him or her and Jane. No matter what."

Cat gave Tori a hug before sitting on Beck's lap. "We have to protect ourselves. We can try to talk more...but if people threaten us.." Cat couldn't bring herself to finish the sentence.

But it didn't matter. The others knew what Cat was getting at and they voiced their agreements. Tori looked defeated for a moment before Beck spoke up. "She's still right though. We're getting to casual with violence. Try not to make it a first resort." Tori's face lit up a little though. She knew she had won a little bit. The others sat around the campfire and chatted away while Tori walked off. She entered the bus and didn't bother to close the door behind her. I sneaked onto the bus.

Tori placed her head against the side of the bus and sobbed quietly. I snuck up and planter a raspberry on her neck. Tori shrieked and tried to get away but I pinned her to the floor.

"Nope. Not going anywhere." I breathed against her neck.

Tori gasped and squirmed underneath me. "Wait..I need to ask you something."

"I'm sure it can wait." I said as my hands trailed up and down her sides.

"NO!" And with surprising strength Tori shoved me off of her and sat on my waist.

To say I was surprised would be an understatement. Normally I was the dominate one in this relationship. I sighed and flopped back. "What is so bloody important?" I asked.

"Killing. I get it. We're going to have to do it. I don't like it. I never will. But why didn't you hesitate? You're not losing your morals are you?"

The feeling I had earlier came back...That _joy_ I had felt. This time I squelched it immediately.

"I have to protect myself. And more importantly you Tori." I whispered.

"So that makes it okay? That was a human life you ended! And I saw! I saw! You smiled!"

Well shit. I had hoped she had missed that.

"So what if I did?!" I snapped. "I had a job to do! And that was to protect you! And the others! And you know what?! I enjoyed it! I'd do it again! I loved the feeling when I pulled the trigger!" I broke off in a high-hiccuping laugh. It took a minute before I could regain control of myself. I refused to look Tori in the eyes.

"Guess this is the part where you break up with your psycho girlfriend." I muttered.

Tori's hands grabbed either side of my face turned me towards her. Her lips came on mine and I felt the most reassuring kiss I had ever felt in my life.

"You're not psychotic...just...i don't know Jade. But i'm worried about what this world is doing to you. And the others. They're becoming more okay with being violent. And...i heard you and your dad talking. What's the point of surviving if we have to do horrible things to survive?"

"That morality doesn't really work here though. We have to fight. That's the way things work now."

"So? Animals kill for food, they kill to survive! They don't enjoy it."

"Tsavo Man eaters." I said bluntly.

Tori flinched as if I had hit her. Sitting up, I wrapped my arms around her. "Look. I'll...I'll try to restrain myself. But I'm...i'm starting to like this world...I think..i think i'm going to lose myself. The only thing holding me back is you..if you die..." I stopped talking. This incredibly rare moment of vulnerability from me must have stunned Tori because she didn't say anything.

But I meant what I said. Deep down, I could try and deny it..fight it. Refuse to acknowledge it...But I was growing to like this new world. This hellish world. The only thing that truly held me back was Tori. What she would do if I became the monster that was hiding inside me.

But if she died...

"I'll protect you. I'll save you from yourself. Just please don't become...don't become that demoness again." Tori whispered against my face.

"I'll try. I promise i'll try. But I can't...i'm just too weak.."

"Then i'll be your strength."

Tori and I slowly pulled off our clothes and climbed into the hammock together. I pulled her tight against me. Tight enough that Tori squeaked. I let her go with a muttered half hearted apology.

Tori shifted around until we were tangled up with each other. Neither of us could leave with out spilling the other out of the hammock. Clever girl.

"For the record, when you brought your morality thing up; I made fun of you." I said.

"yea yea."

"And I mocked you for being a sap."

"I got it Jade."

"Just making sure. Oh and I found a strap on I really want to use on you."

"okay Ja-...wait what did you say?"

"Good night Tori."

"Jade!"

_That's it for this chapter. _

_-C.H._


	26. Just within sight

The hammock swung back and forth as Tori and I lay there. Gradually the other Misfits entered the nest save for Andre. When I saw that I glanced at Jane who simply sad "Gas" and collapsed on the floor. She was getting more tired of late. I sighed. Guarding a pregnant woman during a zombie apocalypse was going to be a serious pain. Tori mumbled something in her sleep. I caught only one or two words, but it sounded like she said Trina.

I glanced at Trina who still wore that thousand yard stare but slowly seemed to be getting better. She yet to actually talk, and i'm probably going to hell for thinking this; but I was really glad she hadn't said a single fucking thing.

Lets give it up for being a selfish shit!

I'm horrible.

The sun was setting, and we were all getting ready to fall asleep. Beck climbed up top to take first watch. Cat said she would take the watch after. The watch was divided up and I got the watch just before dawn. Joy.

Andre had returned and announced that One Eye or Lori said that they had enough gas to get closer to San Francisco; but it looked like we might end up walking there. There's a thought. Walking all the way to San Francisco with corpsers all over the fucking place. Well grumbling wasn't going to get a goddamn thing done, so I might as well get some sleep. I slowly nodded off. And what felt like way to soon, Andre was waking me up.

Grumbling, I grabbed Blanca and climbed up to the top of the bus. I sat and watched. And watched. Why I couldn't watch from the inside of the bus was beyond me, but whatever. The wind started to pick up, blowing my hair around me. Pushing my hair out of my eyes, I glanced up and saw storm clouds.

Wonderful. That will definitely slow us down. After an hour or so, the sun started to rise and birds started their irritating morning chirping. I always hated that chirping. Besides being disgustingly cheerful, it was freaking annoying how loud they could be. I wondered if I could drop a song bird with the crossbow...

No.

No.

Killing things because you can is bad Jade. What would Tori say if she found out?

With that mental check I sat back down and put Blanca back on my lap. I sighed. Well, soon someone will be awake to sit with me through this watch. After all, misery loves company right?

The birds shut up mid chirp. Several suddenly took off as if a fox was right next to them. I watched in confusion. Why would they do that? Unless...

I pounded on the roof of the nest. I kept at it until Cat came out with an aggrieved look on her face. "Jade wha-"

"Might be corpsers!" I whispered. I glanced at the other lookouts who had noticed the birds and were quietly rousing the rest of the convoy. Cat had disappeared back into bus, and a few seconds later the rest of the misfits came pouring out of the nest looking extremely worried. Lori came down the convoy, waving her arms. Beck ran over to her, and then sprinted back. The rest of the people near Lori sprinted off into their respective vehicles.

"We're leaving! Now!" Beck called. The misfits sprinted into the nest, and a few seconds later the bus started up. The convoy started rolling forward, just in time for a small herd of corpsers to amble of of the trees. Whoever was driving slammed on the gas the moment we were free to drive. I damn near fell off before I managed to grab a hold of the emergency exit and open it. I jumped down and landed on Cat.

"You're not my girlfriend." I said.

"And you're not my boyfriend, so you can't be on top."

"Shame." I said getting off of her.

The convoy was tearing away from our rest stop. "What did One-Eye say?" I asked Beck.

"We're going to get as close to San Fran as we can."

"Not much of a plan" Tori said worriedly.

"You have a better idea?" I asked.

"Well...no.."

"Didn't think so."

After awhile, the convoy slowed down to a more sedate cruising speed. Probably to save gas or something. You know how in the movies one road is completely empty while the other is crammed with a sea of abandoned cars? That's exactly what it looked like going into San Francisco. No matter how many times I saw that, it still creeped me out. It was scary how fast things broke apart. Lets hear it for making things built to last! Good going humanity.

Driving through San Francisco was just as depressing. Entire blocks were burnt out hollow shells. Some buildings had there windows shot out, and cars littered the roads. It looked like a war zone. Or a former one really. What was surprising was that there was so few corpsers. It took a while and the the gas gauge ran near red, but we reached the harbor. Just right over there lay Alcatraz.

And no boats. This is going to be a problem.

Well I lie. There is a boat. A yacht really. Half sunk. Just really fan-fucking-tastic.

The convoy parked in a loose circle and everyone started spilling out of their cars. One eye started waving for everyone to come to her. We gathered around her, somewhat apprehensive about this whole situation.

"All right. Here's the plan. Some of us are going to stay with the cars and siphon every last bit of fuel from them. Keep them marked! Don't want to mix them up. Take all the supplies we have and get them ready to go at a moments notice! Beck, I want you Jane and Andre and Cat to stay here. Tori and Jade, please go with Lucas, Noah, and Gary and do a LIMITED search of the area. Bring back anything even remotely useful. Everyone understand? Good. Lets get this done and find us a boat!"

I was surprised at the way One..Lori easily took command. Guess there's something to her after all. The guys found Tori and I easily. Noah leered at me, but my glare froze over any lust on his part. The other two looked at Tori and the glare I shot them would have frozen Hell itself over. They retreated a bit and wisely looked away from Tori.

"So is anyone from around here?" I asked.

They all shook their heads. "I'm from Seattle. That's as close as I get to Cali. What about you guys? Aint you Cali girls?"

"We're from LA you idiot." I snapped. I rolled my eyes and sighed. "All right, lets start searching the area. And for fucks sake keep it quiet!"

_would anyone notice if I stopped adding comments at the end of the chapter?_

_To write a whole new jori story or not to write it? Seems to be the question of the day._

_Hope you all enjoyed_

_-C.H._


	27. New thoughts

We fanned out and started searching. All we turned up however was a large amount of burnt out buildings. The grunts stayed behind us. We moved in a lose circle, relaxed but still watchful. I wasn't kidding when I said that San Francisco looked like a war had happened. The block we walked past had only one building that was still in one piece.

"What the fuck happened here? I asked, staring at a massive crater. It was like someone had taken a giant spoon and scooped out the asphalt and bit of the sidewalk to.

"Looks like a crater left from a missile. I'd be willing to bet it was an air strike from a drone." Noah said. We all turned and looked at him. Noah burned red and said "Ex-Air force. Was a drone operator."

"How old are you?" Tori asked. My mouth twitched and I fought to rein in my jealously. It was one of the things that had caused a lot of problems between Beck and I, and I wasn't willing to start them again.

"Twenty-six"

All of us blinked at that. "Don't look a day over eighteen" I commented. Noah blushed again and laughed. "I get that a lot." Noah said. Tori and Noah started talking together, chatting away as if they had known each other for years.

It took Lucas a couple tries, but eventually he found a topic that we could discuss. Namely, horror movies. Turns out the guy was a massive fan of the Scissoring! Even better he had a dvd player with working batteries in his Subaru. Aw yea. I thought I saw Tori's face twitch at how quickly Lucas and I started talking, but I must have imagined it. Tori isn't the jealous type.

Gary stayed silent, seeming content to occasionally leer and brood. Odd guy. But then again i'm not the one to comment on normalcy am I?

Our conversations were interrupted a loud moaning. We all spun and looked around frantically. Where the fuck is it? "There!" Gary said pointing up. In the window, a corpser was clearly looking at us. It stepped forward, almost seeming to be eager to reach us. It reached the end of the broken balcony and walked right off it. It plunged down several flights before splattering on the pavement.

"Okay...Keep your eyes open." I said. We relaxed a fractional amount and continued walking, striking up our previous conversations. Lucas was walking a little closer to me, and Tori strangely enough was stepping away from Noah. My jealous side was happy that she did, but the larger part of me was worried. Girl could use some new friends. If only to take her mind off of things. After a couple hours of wandering around, we didn't find a goddamn thing. Lucas was getting ever closer to me, but I didn't say anything. Guy must be desperate, and if you'll pardon the arrogance I am pretty damn hot.

It was reaching the hottest part of the day so I called off the search. We settled down in an abandoned store. A quick search revealed absolutely nothing. Gary sat near the door on watch. And the rest spread out to rest themselves. Lucas started to get way too close and a few sharp comments had him retreating.

Out of curiosity I went to check out the back. I easily found the manager's office and inside a corpser lurched towards me. Momentary panic aside I easily hit it in the face with the butt of my rifle in it's head, knocking it to the side, and then jumped on it and slammed a knife into it's temple repeatedly. It took a moment to get the knife out of it's skull, and when I looked at it; even I could tell that it was getting dull. More work to do. Joy.

Searching through office didn't reveal anything. Though I did take the chance to sit in a swivel. I lazily spun my self around. I tried to think of ways to reach Alcatraz, but I couldn't come up with anything. I really wanted a home. A new one, with a bed and running water..and Tori naked. Yes a home sounds fantastic. Some how, my train of thought lead to Lori and my father. I thought back to how easy O...Lori and my father seemed to be getting along. They couldn't be fucking could they? Ugh. What a wonderful thought, now I have that image in my head. Just what I needed.

Lucas stepped through the door. I spun around and faced him. "What's up? Corpsers in the area?" I asked. He shook his head. "Nah, I just wanted to talk about us."

I rolled my eyes. "Dude, there's no us. Even if I wasn't taken I wouldn't be interested in you. But hey, don't be depressed i'm sure they're are some other girls out there for you."

Lucas seemed to get angry at that. Some people just can't take rejection huh? Still, guy needs to learn that not everyone can get their way. For a second, Lucas's face was replaced with Mikes. I shook my head. He's dead. Whatever he was planning to do to me died with him. It's not going to happen. I was so wrapped up in my thoughts I didn't pay any attention to Lucas. Therefor I was completely taken by surprise when he reached across the table and yanked me towards him.

His lips crashed on mine in a bruising kiss. "What the fuck is wrong with you!" I screamed. I attempted to get away, but he had a strong grip on my shirt. He pulled me over the table and threw me on it. I kicked him a couple times, but then he backhanded me across the face with the butt of his pistol. I almost blacked out. In between greyness I heard the sound of his pants being unzipped and then dropped to the floor. I felt his hands on my pants. I tried to fight back but I couldn't. The blow had knocked me sideways.

This couldn't be happen. What the fuck. No No this can't be happening to me! Lucas grunted and I looked up. My pants were unbuckled but still around my waist. Lucas stared at growing red stain at the center of his shirt. Lucas collapsed on the floor. Behind him stood a blank faced Tori.

She stepped over him and pulled me into a tight hug. I hugged her back, and practically sank in her arms.

"You okay? He didn't do anything did he?"

The smell of Lucas's bowels releasing filled the small office. "No. No he stopped him. Lets go. Please lets just go." Tori nodded and pulled me out of the office. Noah and Gary stood there looking shocked.

"Your rapist friend is dead. Go get everything of value off of him." Tori barked. As they left, Tori told me that she had heard my scream and rushed over. Noah and Gary had gone into shock over Lucas's actions. They couldn't have believed that Lucas would do such a thing. Tori had managed to open the office door just enough to plant the knife in the fucker's back.

Tori still held onto me, and she passed me some pain pills. Swallowing them, I sank back into Tori's arms. I fought to slow down my racing heart. I couldn't believe it. I was almost raped. This shit happens to other people. It doesn't happen to me. If Tori hadn't arrived in time...

It took a bit but Noah and Gary came back with everything that Lucas had. Noah looked uncomfortable but he started speak. "May I say something?" He asked quietly. Tori looked ready to say no, but I nodded.

"I'm sorry. Lucas was a bit touched in the head, but I didn't think he'd do something like this. It's my fault..I should have warned you."

Gary stepped in. "No it's mine. We should have acted instead of freezing up like that."

I shook my head. "Not your fault Noah. Lets just forget it. Lucas died in an accident. Got it?"

Both of them nodded.

On the way back, I leaned on Tori for support. I over heard Noah and Gary talking to themselves. (they sucked at whispering) Apparently Lucas had a problem being around woman. They met him after the fall so they didn't know if he had always been like that. But even so, he hadn't been a bad guy. Just aggressive. They had no idea what pressed him to try and... Gary expressed a desire to bring him back to life just to kill him again. Noah just wanted to forget about it. Both agreed however to be better at picking their friends.

Both good guys who simply couldn't believe the their friend had gone off the deep end.

We got back to convoy, Lori raised an eyebrow about the massive bruise on the side of my face, but she bought my story over Lucas dying in an accident. At least I think she did. It didn't matter. Noah and Gary went off to do their own thing; both promising to make it up to me. I told them to forget it. I just wanted to forget.

Tori helped me to the back of the bus and had me lie down. She got up to look around but I grabbed her and pulled her back to me. I rested my head on her lap.

"You killed him. Thought you didn't like killing."

I felt Tori shrug. "I don't...but he was going to hurt you. I'm going...I'm..." She took a deep breath and tried again. "I'm willing to kill anyone that tries to hurt you."

"No baby don't be like that. You're our morals remember?"

"I know..But morals only work when the people you love aren't in danger. I realize that now. You were right you know? You and the others. We have to protect ourselves. We have to survive. We're going to have to do horrible things to survive. I realize that now. We're going to get out of here. Were going to find a place, and make it our home." I thought about it. She's right. "We'll protect each other. Even after we find our new home." I whispered.

I pulled Tori down to kiss me. It was so gentle. Unlike Lucas. And with her I felt no fear, no anger. Nothing but love and safety.

"Sing for me please." I asked. Tori started singing. Her angelic voice filled the nest and I slowly drifted off to sleep, her voice resting in my ears. But i made a promise to myself before falling asleep. I wouldn't let her end up like me. An irredeemable monster.

_Land of bear and land of eagle_

_Land that gave us birth and blessing  
Land that called us ever homewards  
We will go home across the mountains_

_We will go home, we will go home  
We will go home across the mountains_

_We will go home, we will go home  
We will go home across the mountains  
We will go home, we will go home  
We will go home across the mountains_

_Land of freedom land of heroes_

_Land that gave us hope and memories_

_Hear our singing hear our longing  
We will go home across the mountains_

_We will go home, we will go home  
We will go home across the mountains  
We will go home, we will go home  
We will go home across the mountains_

_We will go home, we will go home  
We will go home across the mountains  
We will go home, we will go home  
We will go home across the mountains_

_When the land is there before us_

_We have gone home across the mountains  
We will go home, we will go home  
We will go home across the mountains..._

_The song is the Song of the Exiles from the movie king Arthur. (2004) I hope you all enjoyed._

_-C.H._


	28. Rescue!

I don't know how long I was asleep. All I know is Beck slammed into the nest with an excited smile on his face. I woke up startled and Tori must have fallen asleep because she looked tiredly confused.

Beck ignored our confusion. "We're lighting some tires on fire! Should get some ships attention! Lori spotted a cargo ship just past the bridge!"

That had us up and moving, all of us tripped over each other sprinting out of the Nest. We ran around with the others tearing tires off of cars and grabbing gas and other flammable liquids. The tires lit up easily and almost instantly; massive columns of thick black smoke filled the sky.

"This has to work right?" I demanded.

Beck shrugged. "It should. Don't know of any walkers that could set up three different smoke signals at different distances."

"They might think it's an accident though and not investigate." I retorted.

Beck was frowned at that. His thoughts were interrupted by Cat barreling into him.

"Look what I found!" She yelled.

"Cat quiet!" I snapped, grabbing the object out of her hands. It's a flare gun. Beck and I looked at each other. "What corpser could set off a flare gun?" I asked.

Beck smiled and took the flare gun. All of us sprinted to Lori and proudly showed her what Cat had found. Lori's face broke into the first real smile I had ever seen on her face. She checked the flare gun and found it has one shot in it. We follow her as she moves the pier and points the gun into the air and pulls the trigger. With a hissing shriek, the flare flew into the air and then pops a distance away. As it gently floats to the ground, I asked "What are the odds that someone will actually respond to that?"

Before Lori could say anything, she stared off in the distance for several minutes. We followed her gaze and watched in amazement as several black dots seemed to rise into the air.

"Pretty goddamn good." Lori responded. I couldn't believe it. Were we actually going to to escape this hell hole? This has to be a dream. Has to be. I reached over and pinched Tori's cheek. Tori whined in pain and I let go of her cheek. "What was that for?!"

"Just making sure this wasn't a dream."

"Then pinch yourself!"

"Why? You're right there."

Tori opened her mouth to retort when the crack of a rifle split the air. We all turned around and sprinted towards the sound. Who the hell was opening fire now?! They trying to bring down every corpser in the general area?!

When we got to the location of the shot, we found out who the shooter was. It was a massive steroidal man standing over a freshly killed corpser.

Jason Lodges.

"Lodges what the fuck are you doing here?" I demanded.

"Hoping you'll bury the hatchet and let my family and I come with you."

I opened my mouth to make a snappy line about burying the hatchet in his back, but Lori cut me off.

"Where's Sykes?"

Lodges pointed behind him, to where a small convoy of broken down cars and shell shocked people stood silently. Even Sykes seemed stunned. Lodges sighed and seemed broken. "We were hit. Hard. First a horde of walkers and then some psychotic sons of bitches. Had a skull on their jackets. Who ever the walkers didn't kill they killed or raped. Our community isn't anything but ashes now. Lost a lot driving them away."

"Skull kickerz" Tori whispered.

"What are they doing all they over here?" Cat asked fearfully.

"Eden must have fallen." I said. I immediately felt bad for the Cottles. I hope they had survived but I doubted it. The old man had saved my life. Beck said "They might be nomadic because they got their asses kicked at Eden. Looking for easier prey."

It was a horrid long shot, but I felt my spirits raise a little. Maybe Cottle isn't dead. Maybe.

Lori spoke up. "You can join us. Evac should be here soon. Keep your beliefs to yourself and don't try anything." The unspoken threat lingered in the air. Lodges nodded and waved everyone forward. I watched him and Sykes warily. I didn't trust either of them. But why start something now when evac was right fucking here?

Sykes people walked into the middle of ours and kept to themselves. Jackson stood near a man I presumed to be his husband and stared at Sykes. His hand drifted repeatedly to his gun on his hip and it seemed like he had to forcefully remind himself not to shoot her.

After what seemed like forever but could really only have been at most twenty plus minutes, the helicopters arrived. Those massive elongated ones. Sea knights or something like that. Lori ran up to the first one that landed. She talked with the guy in the back and then ran towards us. "They're from the Sovereign convoy!Wounded, pregnant and children first!" We cheered and hugged each other in joy. Escape was here at last!

In the back of my mind I should have been worried over the racket the helicopters were making. But I was to excited to pay much attention to anything. Andre and Jane went first, and both had to be shoved onto one of the helicopters over their protesting about waiting for the rest of us. We promised to meet up on the ship. Soon every copter was filled and lifting off, with promises to pick up the rest of us. That was one someone screamed. We whirled around and found what some woman was screaming about. Corpsers were walking down the road and coming out of buildings. Massive amounts of them and increasing every second.

"Jesus fucking Christ." I whispered. "Places! Kill as many as you can! We have to hold out until they come back!" Lori yelled. Lucas and Gary backed up a pick up truck and began to manhandle something onto a tripod. Once Lucas got out of the way, the object in question showed itself to be a massive machine gun. Gary racked the bolt and opened up.

Yo.

I thought rifles were loud. This machine gun _roared_. And when the bullets hit the corpsers, they didn't just puncture; they tore through the corpsers. Heads exploded and limps were snapped off. It was horribly beautiful. People grabbed whatever guns they had and opened up. "Controlled shots!" Lori screamed over the gun fire. I looked down the scope and carefully aimed each shot. Every shot was a head shot. But I knew I would never have enough ammo.

Gary swung the gun back and forth, raking the horde with bullets. But it would never be enough. We kept dropping them. One after the other and still it wasn't enough. The roar of more helicopters had me looking up. Black hawks! And a lot of them! We might actually survive this. Some roared forward and raked the area with bullets from their side mounted machine guns. Others landed and people were shoving each other in an attempt to get on. It took a bullet in the air from one of the copter crewmen to restore order. Once loaded, the copters took off, leaving just us.

The next group landed and at Lori's forceful suggestion, loaded the supplies onto them. I personally would have gotten us out, but she was probably right. No point in being rescued from death right this moment if we starve or die from another equally slow and painful death much later.

I turned my attention back to the growing horde. They were coming at us from three sides now. We were completely surrounded. Gary stopped firing to reload, and despite how fast he and Lucas reloaded, it still took them a bit. And during that time the horde pressed a hell of a lot closer. I admit it, I was terrified. I really didn't want to die. Especially at the hands of a bunch of undead fuckers that would literally tear me apart. Lodges stood next to Tori and I; expertly shooting. Without even thinking, I dropped the empty magazine and loaded a full one.

The horde was pressing closer and closer. No matter how many we dropped, they still kept coming. We started backing up, still firing. Still killing. More helicopters came in roaring, and fired missiles at the horde. Other then creating some seriously awesome explosions and destroying dozens if not hundreds of the undead fuckers, it really didn't do much. More were replacing them every second.

The terror was becoming overwhelming. Even Lodges looked like he was about to lose his shit. Tori's face was the picture of absolute terror. So were the rest of the Misfits. But we still kept on fighting. The racket was unbelievable. An endless cacophony of gunshots. The attack helicopters hovered over and continuously fired into the advancing horde.

There must have been thousands. Tens of thousands.

"Why didn't we see them before?!" I screamed.

"We weren't making enough noise! Our rescuers must have gotten their attention!" Tori screamed back.

Well isn't that just fan-fucking-tastic. Killed because of our rescue. Greeaat.

Trina had been fighting with us, and her face growing paler and more pallid with every passing second. The horde eased off after some new missile strikes. We had a few some time. Not much, but some. The copters turned and headed back. Clearly out of ammo. Fucking hell. That was all that was keeping the corpsers from overwhelming us right from the start.

At the sight of the copters retreating, she violently threw her rifle onto the ground and started screaming. Tori moved to help her, but I barked "No! Keep to the line! We have to hold them off!"

The remaining misfits echoed my statements. Even Lodges repeated what I said. Sykes stood behind us, staring uselessly at the approaching horde.

"Sykes pick up Trina's fucking rifle and help us!" I screamed.

Sykes jumped into the air and after realizing what I said, she started to get angry. "You can't order me around! I'm far better then you you stupid dyke!"

Jesus what a fucking bitch. I stopped to reload and I sneered at her one last time before opening fire on the horde again. Lucky for us they can't move any faster then a shuffle. But that really didn't mean shit when you add tens of thousands of them. "Ma'am please help us!" Lodges yelled. His rifle ran out and he was using his pistol. It's pops small compared to the rifles. A chihuahua amongst great danes.

Sykes seemed to gather herself before grabbing Trina's rifle and shoving her out of the way. Tori growled at that but didn't do anything. Despite everything, I started to thing we might actually hold the corpsers off long enough to be evacuated. We could actually survive this!

Click.

I reached for another clip, but my pockets were empty. I looked at in horror. Then I remembered. The rest of the ammo was on the nest! Could I make it there and back in time?

Beck saw me an yelled "GO!"

I turned and sprinted towards the Nest. Hoping I would make it back in time. Off in the distance, I could see the helicopters coming back. They were tearing towards us. Hopefully they'll make it in time.

I didn't want to die.

I reached the nest and grabbed the ammo and began sprinting back towards the others. The line was beginning to collapse. People were falling back in an attempt to save themselves. The corpsers were reaching the line of cars. Some simply walked into the cars and tried to walk through them. Others somehow started to climb over them.

I reached the others and passed out what ammo we had left. It wasn't much. Gary and Lucas abandoned their machine gun and fell back with us. It was out of ammo. Lori ran around, directing everyone to stay together.

I looked at the unending amount of corpsers, and the copters that were steadily getting closer. Which would reach us first?

_Ending on a cliff hanger. You must hate me. I'd add more but sadly I have class in like...now. So see you next time. _

_-C.H._


End file.
